With construction at Sobrato High underway to repair damage that
occurred over the summer, it appears the Bulldogs girls volleyball
team is going to be on the road for the balance of the season.
Morgan Hill – With construction at Sobrato High underway to repair damage that occurred over the summer, it appears the Bulldogs girls volleyball team is going to be on the road for the balance of the season.
That news didn’t damper the Blossom Valley Athletic League season-4opener for Sobrato. Playing in the small gym at Live Oak, the Bulldogs delivered with a three-game sweep over West Valley Division foe Pioneer to record the first ever league victory in the brief history of Sobrato. The Bulldogs went 0-12 in their only year in the Tri-County Athletic League.
Amidst the chaos of switching venues, Sobrato (3-4, 1-0) learned shortly before the start of the match that starting setter Nicole Simoneau was unavailable and backup setter Natasha Chavez was not feeling well.
With Chavez gutting it out, the Bulldogs were locked in a tight battle early. The first game went down to the wire and sophomore middle blocker Ariel Mosbrucker served an ace at match point to give Sobrato a 26-24 win.
The second game followed a similar pattern with both teams trading leads. Mosbrucker again came through on match point, delivering a tremendous block to seal the victory at 25-21.
The third game proved to be more of the same with Pioneer taking an initial lead, Sobrato rebounding to move ahead, and the Mustangs responding again. The game was tied at 21-21 when freshman Katie Nicca stepped up to service line and served a pair of points to make it 23-21. After the teams exchanged points, Sobrato senior captain Jordyn Hanne took the ball and served an ace to give the Bulldogs a 25-22 win and give Sobrato the match.
Mosbrucker and sophomore Laura Billos led the Bulldogs with five kills. Chavez recorded 11 assists, 12 digs and four kills and Lisa Schroedter contributed 26 digs to the effort.
Sobrato’s junior varsity continued its dominant play. After dropping the first game 25-11, the Bulldogs took over.
Captain Arielle Musgrave paced Sobrato as it jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the second game and held on for the win. The Bulldogs continued that pace in the third and decisive game, scoring 14 straight points during one stretch to win the match and improve to 6-1 overall and 1-0 in league play.
Musgrave finished the game with six aces, Debbie Keen added 10 assists and Kelly Kreulen had three kills and one momentum swinging block.
Water Polo
Morgan Hill – The Sobrato High water polo program is still in its infancy and is looking for progress wherever it can find it.
The Bulldogs found some in the Blossom Valley Athletic League opener Tuesday, with the junior varsity girls beating Mt. Pleasant 16-3 to record the first ever win for a Sobrato water polo team, but a couple of lopsided losses for the varsity teams showed how much the team has to grow.
“It’s kind of nice having success with JV,” said Mark Friedley, who is the head coach of all three Bulldogs team (JV girls, varsity girls, varsity boys).
The boys team is in its first year of existence for the 4-year-old school and its roster has no seniors and only one junior. The young team went winless in a tournament in Watsonville last weekend and began BVAL play with a 24-5 loss to Willow Glen.
Sobrato was outscored 15-0 in the first half and went down 19-0 before Bryan Sperbeck fired in the Bulldogs’ first goal. Sobrato finished the game strong, matching the Rams with four goals in the final period. Steven Boyd, Marc Barats and Nick Spark all scored before Sperbeck concluded the scoring with his second goal of the day.
The girls varsity season-opener was a “little disappointing” for Friedley, whose team lost to Mt. Pleasant 17-4 after losing a scrimmage to Cardinals by a narrow 8-7 margin last week.
Early on it had the makings of a tight battle. Amelia Greenland scored early to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Mt. Pleasant’s Stacy Lozara tied the game shortly after before Greenland scored again to regain the lead.
Once again, Lozara fired in a game-tying goal to make it 2-2 and the Cardinals’ Summer Stagner scored to next two goals to give Mt. Pleasant a 4-2 lead.
Greenland narrowed the gap late in the first quarter with a shot from long distance to make it 4-3, but that was as close at Sobrato would get.
Mt. Pleasant scored eight straight goals as Sobrato struggled without its regular goaltender, despite solid efforts from fill-ins Ramseena Shallo, Amanda Daspit and Greenland.
Shallo ended the Mt. Pleasant run with a goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 12-4, before the Cardinals rattled off the final five goals of the game.
