Eagles fight for sweep
HOLTVILLE — The Southwest High volleyball team worked out of a 7-1 opening-game deficit against Holtville High to comeback and beat the Vikings in straight sets here on Thursday night.
The meeting was the second matchup of the Imperial Valley League season for both teams as they opened league action earlier this week.
Despite the early 7-1 run for Holtville, the Eagles clawed back point by point to take the match 25-19, 25-15 and 25-12.
While the score would indicate otherwise, the match was a close one between the two teams that involved long rallies and a loud home crowd that kept the visiting Eagles on their toes the entire game.
Helping Southwest get back into the first game was sophomore setter Erika Arellano, whose serving nearly tied the game after pulling the Eagles within one, 7-6.
Holtville was able to take back the momentum and go up 12-9 before Southwest’s Madeline Jungers went to the service line and helped give her team the lead and an opening-game win.
The second game started similar to the first as it also featured a 7-1 opening run, yet this time it was Southwest High that took the early lead with help from Taylor Moorhead.
Similar to the Eagles, the Vikings nearly evened the score with help from Abby Garewal, who put the host team within one of the Eagles, 7-6.
The teams traded points until the Eagles began to pull away after going up 19-15 with help from left-handed server Sadriena Rodriguez.
Rodriguez is also the Eagles’ libero and held down the back row the entire match, earning praise from Eagle head coach Lisa Hinshaw.
“Sadriena had an amazing passing game, she really did,” Hinshaw said.
The Eagle coach said she was happy with her team’s performance and grit to comeback and hold off a strong Viking team.
“This team is able to adjust on the move, which is something we were missing last year,” Hinshaw said. “This team also has great communication and the chemistry between the girls is really starting to grow. They trust each other and have really started to bond and I think all of that helped on the court (Thursday night).”
While the Eagles are a young team, the returning players have varsity experience that showed in the closer moments of the game.
“If we made an error we’d just come together and refocus and work to get back on track,” Rodriguez said.
With the win the Eagles move to 2-0 in IVL and 7-3-1 overall, while Holtville drops to 0-2 in IVL and 3-6 overall.