St. Vincent continued to hammer its way through a line of North Central League II volleyball opponents with a 3-0 win over visiting Calistoga on Tuesday in DeCarli Gymnasium. The Lady Mustangs also improved their league mark to an unblemished 10-0 by knocking off a couple more dangerous league challengers the previous week in the final stage of the first round of play.
An exciting five-set victory over nemesis Roseland University Prep in Santa Rosa was key to the current successful Lady Mustang run in NCL II action. They had to dig deep to pull out that contest with a 15-12 advantage in the deciding fifth set. Last season, Roseland won two of three meetings between the evenly matched foes to capture the top league seed in the NCS playoffs.
The Lady Mustangs played without regulars Samantha Silva and Sarah Sarlatte but still managed to hold off the pesky Division IV Knights in their Santa Rosa gym.
“Roseland plays very well defensively, and they managed to return many of our kill attempts,” explained St. Vincent coach Kelsey McIntire. “Our girls were very determined though, and we got a great effort from Amanda Zeryny. They dug out many of her shots, but she still came back for more than 20 kills in the match.
“It all might come down to the last match of the regular season on Senior Night if both teams stay unbeaten in league play.”
McIntire also was pleased with the effort of Novato transfer Grace Woerner, who got into action for the first time earlier. “She has helped us since sitting out the mandatory number of matches,” the coach explained.
Calistoga rolled into DeCarli Gym on Breast Cancer Awareness Night with an overall record of 9-4, but the Lady Wildcats were no match for St. Vincent this time around. Led by the hitting of Zeryny and the surprising play of Grace Hood, the Mustangs won 25-19, 25-14 and 25-12.
Zeryny opened with seven points in the first set with hard-hit kills from the corner of the net set up by lofted assists by senior Alexandria Saisi. Hood, who might be taken lightly as vertically challenged at the net by some foes, nevertheless exploded for five kills in the final set, in addition to her strong defensive play in the back row. Hood leads the Mustang team in digs, and she had a good outing in that department as well.
Calistoga led only once during the match when it grabbed a short-lived 7-5 advantage in the third set with some solid blocks by sophomore Andrea Villasenor.
The Wildcats didn’t rely on any one player at the net, but had a good team effort in the first two sets leading to long rallies.
St. Vincent, paced by Hood with assists from Saisi and Sarlatte, outscored the Wildcats, 20-5, and took all the energy from the visitors.
A beneficiary of a five-point run was junior Maddy Duffy, who put the ball in play by serving accurately late in the set.
Woerner, wearing the libero jersey, was very effective in the back row and appears to be fitting in well.
The Mustangs made it a clean sweep with a 2-0 win in the preliminary junior varsity game. St. Vincent closed out the tight and deciding set, 25-22.
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