Defense and consistent hitting propelled Sobrato to a 3-0 win over Evergreen Valley Tuesday, 25-16, 25-19, 25-12.
The Bulldogs (5-1, 4-1) set up the Cougars early in the contest and then went for the kill midway through.
Once Sobrato passed the 10-point mark in each set, the game turned. After the Bulldogs scored their 10th point, they outscored the Cougars 45-27 through the three sets. Up to the 10th point, the difference was 30-20 between the sets.
“Today I feel like they came together more than any (other) day,” said coach Nicole Simoneau. “All the positions were used more than usual. I fell like the passers stepped up, the hitters stepped up, Miranda, obviously, did a great job.”
Samantha Nydam led the charge with 17 kills to lead all hitters.
After her, it was an all around team effort, Simoneau said.
“Today we switched up our hit cycle — outside, middle, back — more than we’ve done lately and I think that’s what worked for us too. We were throwing the other team off.”
Casey Hendricks, Miranda Wertz and Jordan Westall all had multiple kills. Siena Schilling and Kennedie Schilling each contributed a kill in the win.
Seven Bulldogs had aces, led by Hendricks and Wertz who had three each.
Evergreen’s defense made the match closer than the score appeared as the Cougars were digging hard attacks more than the Bulldogs were used to.
“That was something that threw us off because we’re used to the kills, but they got everything up,” Simoneau said.
Sobrato set the tone in Game 1, jumping out to an 8-3 early lead.
But Evergreen rattled off a 4-2 run to pull within three before Sobrato went on its first middle set runs.
Hendricks started things off with two kills which was followed by a Siena Schilling ace and a Westall kill to go up by eight. Evergreen got two quick point to make the game 16-11, but Wertz led a four-point surge with two aces to put the Bulldogs up nine.
“We just sped up our offense a lot and worked to be as scrappy as they were because eventually they got tired and that’s we went in and sped up our offense,” Nydam said.
Nydam put the game away with two kills in the middle of a 5-2 scoring run.
Set 2 proved to be tougher, as the Cougars managed their first two leads of the match, going up 1-0 and 8-7.
But with the two teams tied at 9-9, Sobrato took advantage of a Cougar hitting error to go on a 5-0 run behind the serving of libero Natalie Delman, who recorded an ace in the run complemented by kills from Wertz and Hendricks.
That propelled Sobrato to a 20-11 lead.
“I think we had a lot more energy and we would feed off of each point that we previously won and got more excited with each point that we continued to win,” Nydam said.
Evergreen Valley didn’t go away quietly in the second set, going on a 7-1 scoring run to pull within three.
Simoneau called time out and got the girls back on track. Nydam came out of the break with the kill that sparked Sobrato to four more points to win 25-19.
The third set featured the same early back-and-forth until Sobrato took an 11-7 lead.
The Bulldogs held the Cougars to four more points for the rest of the set. Westall had four service points and Hendricks served seven straight points to help Sobrato put the game away.
In that stretch, Nydam had four kills.
Sobrato will be tested on Thursday when it hits the road to face the two-loss Leland squad heading into Tuesday. That match could help to set up the second place team in the league as both team have lost to the 13-1 Westmont.
Sobrato will play Leland 6 p.m. Thursday in San Jose.
