Down 0-2 Casa Grande volleyball team roars back to beat Petaluma

Casa Grande roared back from a two-set deficit to defeat a fired up Petaluma volleyball team, 3-2, last week to sweep the season series between the cross-town rivals. The visiting Lady Gauchos lost the first two sets and a player from the starting rotation before regrouping to win the close and exciting match by taking the shortened tie breaker, 15-13.

The energetic home standing T-Girls couldn’t do much wrong in rushing to a 26-24 and 25-21 lead behind the hitting of Hannah Dillingham and Kaleigh Weiand with a vocal crowd urging them on.

If that were not enough to deal with, Gauchos starter Naya Rosado tumbled to the floor early in the second set, sustained an ankle injury and could not return. Rosado had been playing an improved brand of volleyball during the last two weeks.

A couple of well-placed serves by Lily Paschoal kept the T-Girls on a roll, and it appeared the favored Gauchos were in big trouble.

Then it happened. Despite the score, Casa Grande had a resurgence of energy behind the play of sophomores Lina Fakalata and Simone Wright to completely take the play away from the T-Girls. Fakalata got off some smoking kills from both the net and the back line and Wright came in to balance the hitting from the right side of the net. A revised rotation began to get the job done.

Kills by Fakalata and Wright came on back-to-back hits as the Gauchos rolled to a 16-5 advantage, and never looked back.

Much of the setting at the net came as a result of re-energized work on the part of senior Kaitlyn Wong. Wong picked up the entire Gaucho offense by scrambling around the Casa offensive unit, and making near perfect assists along with some change-of-pace back handers. Casa Grande won the third set, 25-6, and the momentum turned.

Despite solid serves by Dillingham and Emma Weiand, the Gauchos controlled the fourth set and won, 25-17. Blocks at the center of the net by Bella Blue and Amber Almond helped pave the way.

After an intermission, both teams regrouped, and it was a close one all the way. After a big hit by Emma Weiand of the T-Girls made it 4-1, the Gauchos called a rare time out to re-focus.

Casa Grande caught the T-girls at 9-9 in the final shortened set with Fakalata making some big plays from the back line. Blocks at the net by Wright and Sam Dedrickson got the Gauchos the lead at 11-10.

With the match on the line, Almond came through with two big hits to give the Gauchos a three-point lead before the Trojans recaptured the serve.

Abbie Delaney stepped up to make three clutch serves to help Petaluma crawl back into the match. Her final serve went out of play, however, and the jubilant Gauchos and their fans went into celebration mode.

Casa improved to 6-4 in Vine Valley Athletic League play, and the Gauchos still have an opportunity to finish near the top of the league with a couple more wins before the playoffs begin. The Trojans slipped to 4-6 in league play.

While Fakalata and Wright got big kills for the Gauchos, it was the all-around play of the determined Wong that made the difference in this one. Coach Amber Taylor quickly summed up the play of her senior leader. “Nobody out hustles Kaitlyn Wong,” she said after the emotional match.

Hard hitting T-Girl senior Dillingham had nine kills for her club.

As part of the observance of breast cancer awareness, the two teams collaborated on a brief ceremony prior to the match. Sophomore Savanna Sutton of the Gauchos was honored as a cancer survivor to a standing ovation from the big turnout in the T-Girl gym.

Petaluma won the preliminary game 2-0 to take the season series from the Gaucho junior varsity.