JV Girls Volleyball - September 15

Jaguarettes Strong Serves Finally Prevail

By David Boldt

     The Cooperative girls junior varsity volleyball team finally wrested a victory from a stubborn Christian Learning team two sets to one Thursday in the Jaguar gym.

      The Jaguars dominated the first set, winning 25-14, and got off to a strong start in the second set. After the Eagles had taken the first point, Jaguar Sabina Romero ripped through nine straight points, mostly on the strength of hard overhand serves the Eagles just couldn’t handle.

       But after that Christian Learning slowly began clawing its way back into the game. There was a huge rally with the score at 16-9 in favor of the Jaguars that the Eagles won, and which seemed to have a buoying effect on their spirits and fortunes.

     Gradually they closed the Cooperative lead to three points at 20-17, and then tied the game at 22-22. At that point Rebecca Escudero of the Eagles showed that it is not always the flame-throwing servers who win. Sometimes slow, steady, and accurate gets the job done. She served for the next three points to give the Eagles the set 25-22, and even the match at a set a piece.

      However, in the third and deciding set the momentum shifted back to the harder serving Cooperative girls. Again after spotting the Eagles a point, Romero had another run, taking the score up to 5-1 for the Jaguars.

      The Eagles clambered back to make the count 5-4, and it looked as if the third set might follow the pattern of the second. But then a second Jaguar fireballer, Paula Sakuma, went to the service line and ran the Cooperative advantage up to 12-4.

     The Eagles only got one more point before Natalia Medina, vying for most improved player on the Jaguar team, zipped in three more strong serves – the third a virtual ace that went ricocheting into the backcourt --  and secured the victory at 15-5. 

Griffins Beat Knights by a Landslide

By Sung-Eun Song, SCIS

The International JV girls volleyball team scored a landslide victory over Cambridge. The Griffin girls won in straight sets at 25-11 and 25-9, respectively. This game was held at the International gym Thursday.

The Griffins took an early 5-1 lead in the opening set with three strong serves from Ciara Harriague. Then Pamela Suarez, a key attacker of International, notched consecutive kills to reach the first timeout, leading 9-3. Knight O. Nauallo’s steady attacks gave Cambridge several points but were not enough to overpower the big score margin. In the middle of the match, the Griffins Fabiana Zelada put up a block and Ciara Harriague followed with consecutive kills to push the score to 15-7. The Griffins maintained their lead up to 24-11. Ciara Harriague’s strong spike finally gave Griffins a victory of 25-11.

The momentum continued in the second set as the Griffins jumped out to an early lead of 13-3. Soon the Griffins increased their lead to 16-3 with three consecutive aces from Pamela Suarez, forcing the Knights to call a timeout. After the break, International team continued its dominance, never giving the Knights a chance to catch up. They maintained the big margin until the score reached 22-3. The Knights P. Oliva continuously attacked, but the Griffin advantage in consistency was too big to overcome. The Griffins won the second set 25-9.