Sweeping to a win over Trans-Valley League rival Hilmar, the Escalon varsity volleyball girls got their schedule for the past week off to a strong start.

They hosted the Lady Yellowjackets on Sept. 25 and won 25-20, 25-20, 25-21.

“The week prior Hilmar lost to Ripon in four sets so we were excited for this match and to show some growth from the last few weeks,” said head coach Shay Beam. “We were able to handle business in three sets.”

Sophia Martin had 11 kills and one block in the contest, Chloe Fraser and Claire Barkus each had five kills.

“Our middles were big on the net with Claire having two blocks and Lisa Murga having four,” Beam added. “Setting up our hitters, freshman Aniston Hunt had 12 assists and Karisa McNeil had nine.”

Leading the defense was Macie Vickers with 15 digs, Hunt with 12, McNeil with 11, Martin with eight and Kendra Gwartney with seven.

“Thursday, we traveled to Turlock for a non-league match,” Beam said of Sept. 28 action. “We won set one but unfortunately lost the next three sets and lost the match.”

Scores were 25-19, 17-25, 24-26, 12-25.

“We played well in the first and third sets but by set four we got tired and lost our momentum,” Beam explained. “We started to make mistakes and just couldn’t pull ourselves out of this hole we created.”

Martin had 12 kills for the match, Barkus had six.

“We did a good job defending the net, Lisa Murga had four blocks, Claire Barkus and Ashlee Conde had three each,” noted Beam. “In the back row, Macie Vickers had 21 digs and Aniston Hunt had 10.”

The team was slated to host Riverbank on Monday, Oct. 2 for the annual ‘Dig Pink’ game and goes on the road “for a much anticipated second match” at Ripon on Wednesday, Oct. 4, said Beam.

JV

Both matches went in the win column during a very successful week for the JV girls, said coach Alyssa Cogburn.

They played Hilmar on Sept. 25 and came away with a 25-8, 25-22 win in Trans-Valley League play.

“Marina Franzia and Marissa Terry each had three aces, Marina had eight assists, Chloe Green had five kills and Emma Rangel had six digs,” Cogburn said of the team leaders.

They were on the road Thursday and swept their Turlock opponent in non-league play, 25-20, 25-20.

Terry had four aces, with four kills from Green, seven digs by Rangel and Lesley Cardenas with 12 assists.

FRESHMEN

The youngest Lady Cougars split their games this past week. They lost to Hilmar by a 14-25, 25-21, 1-15 final, said head coach Morgan Gomez.

“Brynn Caton had four aces and seven digs, Samari Webster had six assists, Arianna Velasco had three kills.”

On Thursday, the girls headed to Turlock and lost the first set 22-25, but battled back to take the next two, 25-20, 17-15, to get the victory.

Violet DaSilva had four aces with Webster notching four assists. Haven MacKinnon had five kills, Caton added 13 digs.

“Monday was rough mentally for us, but it was good to get that tight win on Thursday,” said Gomez, noting that it will put the team into a good frame of mind for this week’s competition.