James Olweny (3), shown in a previous matchup with Liberty, had a big game again on Wednesday. (Photo by Action Captures Media)
The Paloma Valley High School boys volleyball team (21-4) defeated league foe Liberty (20-6), 3 sets to 1, to improve to 5-1 in Ivy League play Wednesday night.
“It’s always important to finish the season strong,” said coach Natalie Beauchamp on the importance of the team’s win heading into the final five matches of the regular season. “We’ve had a very successful season so far. I think it’s good for overall morale. We have had a lot of kids sick, we’ve had some injuries, so it’s very important for morale to continue to build a streak.”
James Olweny finished the game with the most kills for the Wildcats with 15, with Jayden Estrella and Erick Fernando following close behind with 11 and 8, respectively. Ethan De Siqueira and Jhomar Yanga led the team with 17 and 10 digs. Jack Keith and Estrella led the way with 4 blocks each as well.
The Wildcats started the first set off well, a trend that would continue at the start of each set, going up 6-1 before Liberty began to crawl back. Eventually Liberty leveled the score at 19 apiece before each team traded points for the next few rallies. After a Paloma timeout, the Wildcats broke the trend and scored the last two points to secure the first set, 25-23.
Just like the first time these two teams met up, the Bison won the second set. The Wildcats took a lead early, but Liberty clawed back and kept it close before taking a 4 point lead, 22-18, late in the set. Paloma fought back and eventually evened the score at 25-25 before Liberty won the last two rallies to take the set, 27-25.
A quick 6-0 start for the Wildcats in the third set created yet another hard situation for the Bison to come out of. Despite bringing the deficit to 4 a few times, every Liberty rally was met with a Wildcat response and eventually they began to pull away, winning the set, 25-17.
“Our biggest strength is that we can be very diverse on offense,” said Beauchamp. “We have four kids going off, we have two outsides, two right sides that are really productive hitters, throw in a couple middles, and it’s a really difficult offense to play defense against.”
The fourth set looked to be a repeat of the third, with Paloma aiming to bring an end to the game quickly. Liberty fought back with resolve, though, cutting every deficit the Wildcats created before eventually knotting the score up at 15, setting up an exciting finish. With momentum, it looked like the Bison were going to force a fifth, set taking a 20-16 lead before Beauchamp called a timeout to have the team regroup.
“At that point, we had given away about 10 points in hitting errors and serving errors,” she said. “I never want them to be afraid to make mistakes. I just want them to be a little bit smarter. So I told them we have to stay aggressive, we still have to swing, but if it’s not the perfect set, we just have to get it in and recycle the ball.”
The timeout worked wonders as the Wildcats immediately responded, going on a 7-1 run to take the lead at 23-21 before Liberty aimed to replicate the results of the Paloma timeout with one of their own. Unfortunately for the Bison, they could not regain momentum, eventually losing the deciding set 25-23, cementing Paloma’s big win.
The Wildcats are back in action on Friday at home against Rancho Verde, while Liberty aims to get back to winning ways Friday at Hillcrest.
