East, Garces to meet for D-IV title; Stockdale advances to D-II final
In the first couple days of the season, East High and Garces were rolling through the South High volleyball tournament and appeared to be headed for a meeting in the championship game.
Unfortunately, both teams lost in the semifinals and the matchup never materialized.
Now, a little more than two months later, the Blades and Rams will have their chance, only this time there’s much more at stake.
No. 2 East and No. 8 Garces each rallied for five-set victories in the semifinals, advancing to Saturday’s Central Section Division IV final at Lemoore’s Golden Eagle Arena.
The Blades (25-7-1), who finished 9-0 to win the Southeast Yosemite League, lost the opening set to No. 6 Madera South (16-14), won the next two and then dropped the fourth to set up a dramatic winner-take-all final set.
Trailing 13-9, East scored five straight points thanks to the dominant serving of Isabelle Zavala, who kept the Stallions off balance with a couple of aces and a series of hits that were hard to handle that gave her team match point at 14-13.
Madera South earned a sideout, but senior captain Laila Baameur did what she does best and finished the game off with a pair of kills.
Baameur finished with a gamehigh 37 kills and also added three aces and two blocks to help the Blades reach the first section volleyball title game in school history with a 22-25, 25-18, 25-23, 20-25, 16-14 win.
Senior setter Kaitlyn Cisneros finished with 40 assists, while teammates Arianney Barrera (five aces) and Isabela Nunez (seven kills) also made key contributions.
Garces (12-11) dug itself a 2-0 hole before roaring back to win the final three sets to advance to the title game with a 21-25, 19-25, 25-19, 2519, 15-11 win at No. 5 Morro Bay on Tuesday.
Junior Mia D’Amata had a teamhigh 31 kills and two blocks, and added 28 digs to help the Rams move a game over .500 for the first time in nearly a month.
Sophomore Samantha Rogers had a team-high 30 digs and added nine kills for Garces, and setter Allison Martin finished with 49 assists and 30 digs.
The first set was a prolonged struggle for the Stockdale Mustangs. With Exeter’s tight defense thwarting attack after attack from offensive stalwarts Morgan Cole and Kamryn Henderson, the Monarchs took leads of 9-3 and 15-8, and even after a lengthy comeback from Stockdale, Exeter claimed the set 27-25.
The rest of the semifinal game was completely different.
Both coaches said their young teams might have suffered from nerves, but the Mustangs recovered their composure very quickly to dominate the Monarchs in a 25-8 second set and 25-12 third set.
They then held on to win the fourth 25-17 despite a flurry of errors, sealing a 3-1 victory and a trip to the Division II Central Section volleyball finals against Clovis East.
Stockdale’s offense livened up down the stretch — three Mustangs finished with double-digit kills — but they broke through thanks to
strong defense around the net. Henderson had four blocks, Cole had three and Bree Lewis had three more as the Mustangs repeatedly forced Exeter into uncomfortable defensive positions.
“I think maybe just being ahead a little bit and then anticipating (helped),” Stockdale coach Maria Collatz said, “and they just got up there and were very aggressive. It was awesome.”