Kings top Spartans in four games.
The Central Union High School girls’ volleyball team opened its home match Thursday by blowing past the visiting Kofa High Kings of Yuma, 25-12.
The Kings, however, rebounded to win a close second game, 25-23. Kofa then took game three 25-20 and closed out the match winning game four 25-15 to take the match three games to one.
“Frustration led us to make simple mistakes that gave them points,” said Central coach Ernesto de la Rosa. “The second game was key, they took the momentum away from us.”
Game one was all Central as senior Destiny Salgado dominated the net both hitting and blocking, throwing the visitor into disarray.
But in the second game, Salgado literally got “stuck” in the back row as Kofa was able to hold serve, negating her ability to dominate the game.
“It’s very frustrating when you know you’re stuck in the back row and I play as hard as I can but it’s still frustrating when you can’t hit or block at the net,” Salgado said.
Sophomore hitter Samantha Herrejon played next to Salgado and she too was frustrated after the first game.
“We played them earlier this year so we were familiar with them and being at home helped us in the first game,” Herrejon said. “It was a little frustrating especially when we know we can get to a ball and we stand around.”
De la Rosa felt that his team lost their focus but that that might translate into a positive going into Imperial Valley League play next week.
“Tonight we stopped hitting and started tipping the ball and giving away too many free balls and that’s not our game,” de la Rosa said. “This was a good game to go into league because we tried some new things and we know what mistakes we made.”
For Salgado, she and fellow starting seniors Brianna Gonzalez and Angelica Camacho will continue to work with Herrejon and the other first-year varsity players to forge a team.
“We’re trying to get everyone involved and the comfort-level isn’t quite there yet,” Salgado said. “It’s a process and we just have to keep working in practice.”
Central (7-3) has the IVL bye on Tuesday and opens league play at Palo Verde Valley in Blythe on Thursday.