By David Boldt
The Cambridge boys junior varsity volleyball team maintained a firm hold on second place in the League by beating Cooperative for the second time this season. The Knights posted a straight sets victory over the Jaguars in the Jaguar gym Tuesday, winning the first set 25-19 and the second 25-16.
Both of the junior varsity teams showed themselves capable of varsity-level teamwork and defense, with a number of players on both sides delivering high-speed overhand serves. But Cambridge seemed to be hitting the ball a little harder, a little more often.
The Knights got off to an 8-2 lead in the first set, and the Jaguars were never able to cut down that advantage to less than four points, which they achieved at 14-10. Indeed, the Knights appeared ready to seal the deal when the score reached 24-16, but then committed a series of miscues that allowed the Jaguars to narrow the final margin to 25-19. The final point in the set for Cambridge was set up when Knight Andres de la Riva made an intrepid kick save to keep the ball in play.
The second set was a much closer affair at the start. But Cambridge finally took charge at 10-7. One factor in the Knights favor was that they seemed able to handle the service of Jaguar Luis Peredo, who in other contests had been able to rack up long strings of points with his fireball delivery. Cambridge was able to get back many of even his hardest-hit balls, and then often won the serve back in the ensuing rallies.
The Knights got some outstanding serving from Jorge Aliaga and strong net play by Daniel Kirigin and de la Riva. Masayoshi Ueno, though one of the shorter players on the court, showed he could both set for other players and jump up to hit high-speed returns on his own.
The Jaguars, in contrast, could never seem to get rolling, and with the score 20-15 in favor of the Knights a mix-up in the Jaguar backcourt ended up with one player accidentally kicking the ball in a teammate’s face. While the two quickly made amends, exchanging hugs, it seemed to unsettle the Jaguars, and the Knights quickly closed out the set, and the match, 25-16.
Griffins Defeat Eagles 2-0
Story to come...
