The Las Lomas Knights came into the Alhambra gym, stunned the Bulldogs and handed them only their third loss this season, and their first loss in DFAL play.
Las Lomas, last year’s DFAL runner ups, lost league MVP Alexis Behrooz to graduation, but that didn’t diminish the quality of this year’s team.
Alhambra opened up their match on Thursday afternoon (April 14) with a dominating set win to get the proceedings started. Jerald Jionoran and Will Jochum each recorded five kills in the opening set to lead Alhambra to a big win.
In the second set, Las Lomas turned up their game led by outside hitter Leor Schiffer and middle blocker Tony Dambaryenchin. The Bulldogs took a momentary lead due to the hitting of Kyle Magtibay. The senior who wears number 14 had four of his six kills in the second set and forced Las Lomas to call timeout and make adjustments.
They made the adjustment.
Schiffer, Dambaryenchin and Jordan Angus each railed off a kill apiece to take the lead back. Angus’ ace when the two teams were knotted at 21 was the final dagger in the Bulldogs for the set. And middle hitter Clayton Gardener finished the Bulldogs off with a kill to even things up.
Set three went to Alhambra, but not in the same dominating fashion that the opening set did. The Bulldogs benefitted by unforced errors by Las Lomas to open up an 8-3 lead in the early stages.
Jochum, Jianoran and Nick Lucido recorded kills in the opening moments, but Las Lomas had a pair of service errors and allowed Alhambra some time to get in stride.
The Bulldogs won the third set still with the idea of taking the match into their hands, but Las Lomas came back to win the next two sets.
The fourth set of the match was all Las Lomas. It was hotly contested by Alhambra but led by the Knights from the first point. The Bulldogs closed to within two points twice, but a kill from Kane Haskins set up Alhambra to make an error and hand the Knights the game.
In the tie-breaker set, the Bulldogs had the upper hand, but it only lasted for a brief moment.
Haskins had a kill from a time out that was key to leading the Knights to the set and match wins.
But in the end it was two kills from the captain, Schiffer, that did the Bulldogs in for their first loss of the season in DFAL play.
Jianoran and Jochum each recorded double figure kill numbers (19 and 11 respectively), while Savion Prieto had 38 assists on the night with a block and dig as well.
