Paloma Valley defeats Temescal Canyon in girls volleyball
Newcomer Lara Martinez (12) had 16 kills for the Wildcats Tuesday night. (Photo by Carlos Renteria) By Paige Mendez, Correspondent The Pal...
By Paige Mendez, Correspondent
The Paloma Valley High girls volleyball team won its match-up with Temescal Canyon Tuesday night in four sets at home.
After a 27-25 victory in the first set, Paloma had the momentum to start set two on a 10-4 run. Temescal caught up to them quickly and ended up with a late comeback, however, taking the lead for the first time at the 24th point and winning, 25-23.
That was the last loss for the Wildcats on the night, as they took set three 25-18 and ended with a big 25-11 win.
Head coach Stephen Kaas said the 3-1 victory isn't new to his team, especially this early on in pre-league play.
"Right now I'm experimenting to see how things will go and what pieces to move around," he said. "When it looks good it looks great, and when it's bad it's pretty awful. We're at those polar extremes right now, so I'm just looking for consistency."
One of the new things for Kaas and staff this season is senior outside hitter Lara Martinez, a transfer from Bakersfield who tallied 16 kills on the night and had a .500 hitting percentage.
Martinez attributed her success to the team she is surrounded by.
"I think it's amazing to feel so at home here. They are amazing people to play with," she said. "Coming from a place where I didn't necessarily feel that, they welcomed me with open arms and this team has become like a family to me."
As for the struggle in the second set, she said that, just like any family, there are growing pains they are still dealing with.
"We try to work for each other at all times, so when we do struggle it's the growing pains of this only being our third real match on our home court together," she said. "But we really just enjoy each other on and off the court and that means so much to me."
Kaas said Martinez is an asset on a team that was already looking to have a successful season.
"We love that Menifee is growing and people are moving into town. We are lucky that this is the school she is supposed to be at," he said. " We hope the people in Menifee see that this is the volleyball destination if you want to be part of a great program."
Other assets on the Wildcats’ side of the court were senior Grace Liesemeyer, who tallied seven aces in the match, and junior Lauren Kendall, who added nine kills. Baylie Moore and Kamryn Anderson also contributed seven and eight kills, respectively, with Moore hitting at a 538 percentage.
Even with those numbers, Kaas said he isn't near where he wants to be, but he is happy to start to see it coming together.
"We're a little beat up from some of them being injured and what not, so we haven't really even rolled out what we want to do yet," said Kaas. "But it's nice to see that some of the pieces are coming together."
Kaas seems to have a way with bringing pieces together as he nears his 300th win as the coach at Paloma.
"That says more about longevity, just plugging away each season," he said of the milestone. "I'm most proud that we only missed the playoff my first year and we had tied for third and just missed it. We have six league championships, but it gets tougher every year and it's going to keep being a challenge. But that's why we're doing it."
The next stop for the Wildcats will be a home match-up with Redlands on Thursday at 5 p.m. before a tournament this weekend.
Senior Grace Liesemeyer had seven service aces on the night. (Photo by Carlos Renteria)
