Bishop Diego’s Brick House Gym was like a brick oven for the Tri-Valley League girls volleyball opener between the Cardinals and crosstown rival Laguna Blanca on a toasty late Tuesday afternoon.
The teams went at it for five sets in the heat. Bishop’s Abbie Hubbs went on a six-point serving run to rally the Cardinals from a three-point deficit en route to a 15-12 match-clinching victory. The other set scores were 25-17, 25-23, 18-25 and 22-25.
“We talk about volleyball not being a beauty contest,” Bishop coach Dillan Bennett said of the scrappy and sometimes disjointed play by both teams in this early-season league encounter. “It does not have to be pretty to score a point.
“Two of the areas we’re going to have to be exceptional in this year are playing defense, because we’re not much of a blocking team — if we run against a big-hitting team like Laguna and don’t play defense, we’re going to be in trouble. And serving. I did not think we had an exceptional serving night and we still served pretty well and put Laguna in a lot of trouble.”
Laguna Blanca coach Tanner Stevens expected a great battle against the defending league champions.
“We knew it was going to be to tough. Dillan always throws something at you. Once we figured out their offense, we adjusted. It was just a little too little, too late.”
The Owls struggled early with their ball control but they settled down and started using their height advantage at the net and being more aggressive. Marritt Blabey provided a spark on the left side with her hitting and defense and at the service line. Once she got going, middle Greta Alldredge and outsides Lauren Kenny and Hadleigh Bolton started finishing plays.
“She’s definitely become our vocal leader very early in this year,” said Stevens of the junior Blabey. “We’ve had a a lot of conversations about her role. Offensively, she was probably our best player tonight, too, which helps. When your best player on the court is also your loudest and working hard, everybody else kind of follows that. We just have to find a way to do that at the beginning and not come back in the third and do it.”
Consecutive ace serves from Blabey opened up a 14-8 lead in the third set for the Owls. Bishop got as close as two points before Laguna ended the set on a 3-0 run.
The teams went back and forth in the fourth set. The Cardinals rallied from a four-point deficit (17-13) and took leads of 20-18 and 21-19 behind the hitting of Karina Urzua. Laguna came back as Blabey delivered another ace during a set-closing six-point run.
The Owls took a 9-6 advantage in the fifth set before an Urzua tip sparked a Bishop comeback. A tough serve by Hubbs made it 9-8 and the Cardinals tacked on four more points on three Laguna hitting errors and a kill by Urzua to take a 12-9 lead.
Kills by Kenny and Blabey made it 12-11 but the Owls committed a service error on the next play. A dig by Emma Bouvat-Merlin that was converted into a kill by Kenny put them within one again. A net violation on the next rally ended Laguna’s shot to equalize.
Bishop’s Natalie Chan scored the match-winning point on a block.
Urzua and Chan led the way for seven-player Bishop. Urzua produced a 20-20 double of 25 kills and 23 digs, and served four aces. Chan had a double-double of 15 kills and 22 digs to go with two aces.
Being the team’s kill leader is a new role for Urzua. For the last three seasons, she’s run the Bishop offense as the setter. Now she’s attacking the sets from sophomore Abby Walters.
“It’s fun,” Urzua said of the transition. “I love trying to help (Abby) as much as I can and make her the best player she can be. I think it’s a fun opportunity for me because in my club I just set, so it’s fun to try new stuff and have some new tools.”
Kenny paced the Laguna attack with 11 kills, while Alldredge and Bolton each had 10. Setter Lolayna Redmond dished out 40 assists and picked up 15 digs.
