Grizzlies sweep Wolves 3-0 in home opener
Improve to 2-1 under first-year coach Nagy
Granite Hills outside hitter Viviana Aldaco hit went into the net and with her hands clasped behind her back, she turned to GHHS first-year head coach, Stacie Nagy, and blushingly apologized for the mistake.
“What are you saying sorry for,” Nagy asked with a laugh and told Aldaco to keep playing. Aldaco did, but every time she made a mistake in Tuesday’s game against Delano’s Wonderful College Prep Academy she repeated the action — clasping her hands behind her back and she’d look to Nagy for reassurance. And every single time, Nagy gave it.
Coming off a 3-1 victory over Orange Cove last week, Granite Hills (2-1) swept Wonderful Prep 3-0 Tuesday. The Grizzlies’ won the sets 25-20, 25-15 and 2025 over the Wolves (0-1).
In her first game at home, Nagy appeared encouraging to her players — many of whom were returners from last season’s team that went 2-14 on the overall season without winning a single game in the East Sequoia League.
“The girls had a rough time last year, mentally, I think,” Nagy said. “So it’s been a lot of just rebuilding; mentally and emotionally, physically, all the way around. But yeah, that’s one thing we’ve been working on but they’re getting better.”
Both teams struggled with returning serves and maintaining a lead but Granite Hills was
able to get the upper leg on Wonderful Prep with a strong performance from front row players Aldaco and Yvette Felipe, as well as Lizbeth Ceballos and Reyna Ennis. Felipe finished with four kills and Giselle Servin had five aces.
“We have a lot of talent on the team but they, like you said, fall off real quick and when they get down on themselves, the whole team falls and [I'm] trying to keep the vibes up,” Nagy said. “I'm more of a cheerleader than a coach sometimes, but that's OK. As long as they're happy and having fun and smiles on their face, I'm good with it.”
Rebuilding not only the varsity team but the whole volleyball program as a family is what Nagy is focused on this season.
“To me we run as a family,” Nagy said. “The entire program from my freshmen to my seniors, they practice together. This is a program of family. A lot of the girls do it just because they don't have anywhere else to go after school, this and that, so they come here and I want them to feel like this is their family. No matter what.”
Rather than focus on what's down the road — like a 6 p.m. game at Kennedey on Thursday — the Grizzlies play and operate in there here and now under Nagy.
“I'm feeling good,” Nagy said about the season. “Like I said, I don't have any expectations. We deal with right here, right now, and that's how we go. We don't look at the future. We just look at right here, right now.”