Acalanes Ladies Varsity Volleyball: Dons Punished the Panthers!

Thursday evening 10/6, the Dons hosted the Benicia Panthers at Acalanes.

Set one began with high level play on both sides of the net! Despite solid serves & sets from Korzeniowska & Seelenbacher, multiple kills led by Walton, with assist from Olin, Mason, Dikova, & Hageboeck, and digs on defense by Winkles, Profilio, & Bocobo, the Dons and Panthers were neck & neck almost the entire game! At 21 all, the Dons got a second wind: More kills & blocks by Walton, Olin, Paul, & Dikova, strong service including an ace, along with multiple saves & ups by Profilio, another set over the net from Korzeniowska, and the final kill by outside Hanna Hageboeck, closed the set at 27 – 25 Dons!

The Dons started off the second set with Jones & Seelenbacher serving up multiple aces, kills by Olin, Hageboeck, Walton, Jones, Dikova & Foster. Profilio & Foster kept the momentum going, each with solid runs on serve, including aces, Dons’ defense with blocks by Paul, ups & saves by Profilio, Dikova, & Foster. Once again, the set ended in the Dons’ favor, with another Jedi mind-set over the Panther block by Korzeniowska, and another kill by Hageboeck; final score 25 – 15.

No signs of fatigue entering set #3, the Dons continued to outpace the Panthers with strong defense: multiple digs from each Wang, Winkles, Jones & Profilio, blocks by Foster, Olin, & Walton. Winkles, Seelenbacher, & Olin each had nice runs on serve, including multiple aces. Relying on consistent sets by Korzeniowska & Seelenbacher, the kills continued to pummel the Panthers from the Dons’ front line: Oppo Apple Walton may have racked up a dozen kills, but I stopped counting after 10…more kills from Foster, Jones, Dikova, & Mason, with the final blow delivered by Maelin Mason, to end the night and the third set, Dons 25 over Panthers 15.

JV girls continue their roll against Benicia

This team just keeps chugging forward with win after win.  As everyone knows, it’s easy to get overconfident and lose focus from time to time when wins keep stacking up.  Not this team.  With great team chemistry and great coaching, these Lady Dons keep their foot on the gas pedal.  With a matchup with Campolindo on the horizon on Tuesday, it would have been easy to look past Benicia.  

In set 1, Milan Maycock had multiple stuff blocks and ferocious kills to get the team up early and rolling.  Addi Ames also had a couple of knee-buckling kills.  Piper Coy continued her season long serving excellence with multiple aces.  Benicia really didn’t stand a chance as our front line had a huge height advantage.  With kills and blocks continuously raining down from all angles, we cruised to a 25-10 first set win.

In set 2, fabulous serves by Rena Liu got us out to another early lead.  Milan continued her strong day with more smash kills.  Nisa Khoury came in strong too with soul crushing kills to keep Benicia on their heels.  Christina Hageboeck had wonderful sets to really give our hitters a great chance to kill the point.  Piper finished the second set on the service line with another ace to win 25-16 to continue our undefeated league play.  The big test comes Tuesday on the road at Campolindo that will definitely challenge our unblemished league record.  Go Dons!

Freshman Girls Volleyball Defeats Benicia in Straight Sets

Set #1: Dons win 25-15

Sydney Graves got things going for the Dons, serving a crisp ace for the first point of the contest and Veronica Flint kept her bump-kill streak going, providing the Dons’ second point.  The team’s serving hasn’t been its usual, dependable self the last few matches, but the ladies put that story line to rest as Sela Sarbiewski served for six points including five aces, Audrey Martin rattled off four straight service points and Ellie Blanchard racked up four as well.

The Dons were in control for the entire set and while strong, dependable serving was the main event, the most fun point of the night was actually a point the Dons lost! Maya Stafford took her second serve with the Dons up 10-6, the Bears returned serve and an epic rally broke out that kept Maya plenty busy in the setter position.  Action included: two tremendous strikes from Audrey, a diving save by Reese Westphal, a net spike from Juliana Harhay and a strong strike from Brooke Rardin.  Both Bears and Dons fans roared with applause as the point concluded, great play from both sides.

Despite losing that epic point, the Dons scored the next seven, highlights included a great setter-dump from Sydney, another Veronica bump-kill and Sela’s big kill that was set-up nicely by Emma Brewer.

Set #2: Dons win 25-15

The Dons jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead as Audrey opened the action with a bump-kill of her own, soon matched by Veronica’s on point 5.  Coach Roman must be cooking up some sorcery in practice as those bump-kills are becoming a mainstay of the offense!

Much like the first set, strong Dons’ serving was the story of this one too. Sydney rattled off five service points in a row including an ace, Ellie chipped in for four points and an ace and Audrey kept her strong serving going with three points to her credit. 

The Dons dominated this one, up 22-9 late in the action. The point of the set was #17 as Phoebe Gerlings made a nice bump pass to Sydney who set up Ellie for a big, cross-court kill. Other highlights included Juliana’s nice kill at the net for point four, Audrey’s great save on point 21 and Valeria Toledo’s strong play at the net.  While it didn’t generate a point, Valeria absolutely crushed a serve that was destined to be the ace-of-the-night, but alas was called back for a foot-fault.  First time your correspondent has focused on two points the Dons didn’t win, but both were noteworthy and crowd-pleasers to be sure!

Game ball: Juliana Harhay – congrats and great job out there today!