Wildcats cap perfect season with sweep
BRAWLEY – The Brawley Union High volleyball team sealed its perfect Imperial Valley League season with a sweep over Holtville High here on Thursday night.
The Wildcats topped the Vikings 25-18, 25-13 and 25-12 to end the IVL season with a 12-0 record and its first outright and undefeated title in three-to-four years, estimated Wildcat Head Coach Phil Finnell.
“I’m happy for the girls and I’m happy for our community,” Finnell said. “This is something that I thought was possible from the beginning of the season.
The Wildcats started the match with a little bit of jitters as starting setter Jalyn Ayala was out for the day placing Savannah Contreras in the starting role.
“I think Savannah did a tremendous job for us,” Finnell said. “We knew that if we got in a bind, our defense would be able to get up a pass and she’d be able to find our strong hitters, which she did in the beginning.”
While there were a few new faces in different positions during the game, the Wildcats worked through the kinks as they were not about to let a perfect season out of their grasp, especially at home.
Helping Brawley to the win was senior outside hitter Logan Nemlowill, who paced the team in kills and Jennah Rodriguez, who paced the team in digs and service points.
“I was just trying to hit spots that I knew they’d probably have trouble getting to,” said the junior libero.
Rodriguez said she was happy to be able to help her team to a perfect league season, which hadn’t been done by a Wildcat team, or any other team since 2013.
“It’s exciting, because this is something that this group hasn’t done before, so we were all really happy,” she said.
While the Wildcats are happy with their 12-0 IVL mark and 21-10 overall record, their sights are now set on the CIF-San Diego Section playoffs, which are set to being next week.
The Div. III squad is anticipating a top five seed in the tourney, giving them home-court advantage for at least the first playoff game, explained Finnell.
The Wildcats’ official tourney seed as well as those of other IVL teams will be determined at a meeting on Saturday morning.