Acalanes vs Albany Varsity Volleyball : Home Opener a Win in 3 Sets!
Tuesday evening August 30, the Dons hosted their first home match of the season against the Albany Cougars. Acalanes was off to a strong start with multiple dinks and kills by middle Katelyn Olin, strategic hits and sets over the net to the baseline by Ryann Jones, and crushing kills by Monica Dikova. The Dons continued to dominate with strong serves by Mika Bocobo and Jade Profilio. First set finished with a clean kill by Apple Walton, Dons winning 25 – 12.
The Dons started set 2 with all Acalanes hands on deck! Highlights included consistent spot-on setting by Sophomore Emme Seelenbacher, crushing hits and blocks by Katelyn Olin, Ryann Jones with 3 aces on serve, multiple kills by Sofie Foster, Ryann Jones, & Maya Paul. Mika Bocobo again with a run on serve…finishing the second set with a defeat of the Cougars 25 -13.
The final set was another team effort from start to finish. Deep digs by Jade Profilio & Georgia Winkles, kills and aces on serve by Monica Dikova; Maylin Mason, Ryann Jones, Katelyn Olin with un-get-able hits against the Cougars. Maya Paul & Apple Walton adding to the impressive kill count, with Katelyn Olin hitting the final point in this closer 3rd set, the final score Dons 25, Cougars 18.
JV Girls Roll in their first home game of the season
The JV Girls Volleyball team finally were able to show their stuff in front of a home crowd against the visiting Albany Cougars. Coming into this matchup, the Acalanes JV team had won their first two contests of the season and were looking to continue the win streak. As has been their trademark so far, they came out hot. With awesome blocks and kills by Sophia Terry, the team cruised to an early lead. Christina Hageboeck had some amazing serve aces that overwhelmed their competition that led to a 25-16 first set win. The team came out even hotter in the second set, leading 13-4 behind the serving of Rena Liu and hitting of Milan Maycock. Despite a little comeback by Albany, the JV Acalanes team were able to close out the second set 25-19 and run their record to 3-0. The team travels to Maria Carillo High School in Santa Rosa on Wednesday to hopefully keep their perfect record intact.
Freshman Girls Volleyball Tops Albany in Traffic-Shortened Match
The Dons warmed up and warmed up and warmed up on Tuesday afternoon as they waited for their opponent to arrive. I’m sure the Albany Cougars would have rather been playing than sitting in traffic, but sometimes the Bay Area does its thing and we all have to make the best of it. Thankfully the Cougars ultimately did arrive safely and the Freshman game got started around 4:30 with notice that it would end at 5pm regardless of the score, so the Dons got to work…
Set #1: Dons win 25-8
The Don’s serving was the story in the first set. It was aces-wild for Sydney Graves who got things going with 5 consecutive aces, followed by Ellie Blanchard who served for an incredible 15 points in a row, many of which, in hindsight, were aces though your correspondent was busy googling what constituted an “ace” and lost track along the way. Veronica Flint had some nice bump passes during the rally and Maggie Krackeler had 2 kills for points 9 and 17 while Sela Sarbiewski scored an impressive kill as well. Grace Hayes had a nice bump save and kill for point 18 and Emma Brewer was very active with 4 nice sets on consecutive points late in match as Juliana Harhay and Valeria Toledo made their presence known at the net. Albany made a rally late in the set with 6 straight service points to bring the score to 23-8, but Audrey Martin’s kill ended their rally before Maya Stafford served an ace for the final point of the match.
Set #2: set called at 5pmwith Dons down 6-9
This set didn’t make it into the books as time ran short, which was too bad as it was shaping up to be a better contest than the first. Sela served to score the first point for the Dons who found themselves trailing 1-5, but then things started clicking again as the team rallied around good all-around play from Reese Westphal and Maya set up Brooke Rardin for a nice hit as the Don’s battled back. Phoebe Gerlings had a nice bump pass to extend a rally and Sydney score two service points, including another ace. Your heavily biased correspondent is confident the Dons would have taken control of this set had it gone the distance but we’ll never know for sure!
