No. 4 West Valley sweeps No. 7 Bulldogs in Coast-South vs. Coast-North showdown
SARATOGA - The unbeaten leaders of the Coast-South and the Coast-North collided in Saratoga Wednesday night, with state #4 West Valley sweeping #7 College of San Mateo 25-18, 25-23, 25-16. The much-anticipated match, played in front of a large West Valley Gymnasium crowd, featured some big hits from both sides and a spirited second-set Viking rally that showed why WVC is ranked where it is.
West Valley (13-3, 6-0 Coast-South) sprinted out to 6-0 and 12-4 leads in the opening set, forcing CSM coach Katie Goldham to burn both her timeouts early. The Bulldogs (13-5, 4-1 Coast-North) closed to within five at 23-18, but Katie Kishton and Taylor Tullo kills sealed the set.
Back-to-back blocks by Alina Valenti gave the Vikings an 11-7 lead early in the second set. CSM rallied from a 15-11 deficit to tie it at 15-15 and then grabbed seemingly insurmountable 20-17 and 23-20 leads. Five straight points, including a pair of ferocious Tullo kills, rallied WVC to the improbable 25-23 win.
The Vikings were never behind in the final set. Three straight service points from Flor Porras gave WVC a 15-10 advantage and then a Kishton-from-Sydney Rogers smackdown pushed the lead to 18-13. After another Kishton kill, a Valenti-from-Rogers quick-set point made it 20-13. Rogers fed Kishton again, followed by a San Mateo attack error, to give WVC a 22-13 lead. A Naomie Cremoux kill brought CSM to within 22-14, and the two sides traded service errors, before a Valenti kill set up match point at 24-15. A Bulldog sideout made it 24-16 with CSM's Eyriana Eatmon serving, but a Tullo kill ended the evening.
Tullo paced the Viking stat sheet with a match-high 17 kills (.457 hitting %), along with six digs and a service ace. Kishton had a big night with nine kills, 10 digs, an ace and a solo block, while Valenti had a loud eight kills (.583%), five digs, four aces and three blocks. Belen Morgan was a force at the net all night, knocking down six kills and blocking three CSM attempts. Defensively, Kate Blackwell and Porras came up with 16 and seven digs, respectively. The steady Rogers finished with a match-high 36 assists, five digs and a trio of block assists, and Keilli Voss had four kills and three blocks. Cremoux equaled Tullo with a team-high 17 kills for San Mateo, and Eatmon had 27 assists and nine digs.
West Valley's Oct. 22 match at Cabrillo has been postponed, setting up a big Oct. 27 road trip to Salinas to face Hartnell (10-9, 3-2 Coast-North). First serve is 6:30 pm.
(Matt Folsom, West Valley Athletics)