By GERARDO RECINOS
Martinez Tribune
When athletes win title games, they celebrate. The scene is usually set in Las Vegas, New York City, maybe New Orleans. But when you’re 18, there’s really only one choice: Disneyland.
The seniors on the boys volleyball team – nine out of the 15 players on the team –didn’t arrive from their senior night until approximately 2:30 p.m., according to coach Peter Crowley. While it affected their play, the coach was still pleased to see that their North Coast Section win didn’t stop them from beating Del Oro 3-1 in the first round of the Northern California CIF volleyball tournament.
Having already made history at Alhambra, this group of 15 boys did something the 16 teams before them couldn’t do, but that doesn’t mean they’ve finished writing the story just yet.
The story of adversity is one that resonates with anyone who saw the 2014 team go 2-15. But it also sticks out to anyone who saw Alhambra nearly cough up a lead in the opening set on May 24, and then look thoroughly unlike themselves in the second set loss to the Golden Eagles.
The visitors from Loomis got their hands on spikes from Alhambra’s hitters that landed nearly all season. It wasn’t until late in set two that the Bulldogs started to hit their stride. Jerald Jianoran had a pair of kills late in the set and made a big block, but his late effort was too late to single-handedly turn around the score line.
But it did help turn around the match itself. Jianoran and Will Jochum started the rally off, but defensively Allin Torio seemed to settle in as well and got a hand to some thunderous spikes from juniors Nico Benson and Logan Cole.
Cole in particular had his way, hitting from the middle and outside. Nearly everything he touched looked to have nasty spin on it, and came from all angles.
But as one element of the game – defense – started to settle in, so did the passing, hitting and overall play. Savion Prieto had 37 assists on the night, most of which seemed to come in the later stages of the match.
In the third and fourth sets Nick Lucido and Dylan Hammond chipped in some key kills to go along with the improved hitting from the rest of the Bulldogs, as did Kyle Magtibay, who also had a pair of late aces in huge spots.
In the fourth set the largest lead was only four points. With every point counting the biggest contribution came from Hammond, a sophomore forced to step in and play more than he has all season due to an injury to Christian Cota, the team’s reliable middle.
Hammond came up with a big block at 23-23, his second on the night, to set up game point and ultimately a match win for Alhambra.
The Bulldogs took on Leigh-San Jose on Thursday, May 26, after Tribune deadline. For results from that game, please see the June 3 edition of the Tribune.
