In a match between the top two teams in the Tri-Valley League, Laguna Blanca’s boys volleyball team didn’t disappoint its home crowd, beating Bishop Diego in four sets, 25-16, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20, on Thursday night at Merovick Gym.
Laguna Blanca improves to 6-0 in league while Bishop Diego is 6-2.
“It’s really important that we got a win after spring break,” said Laguna Blanca coach Jason Donnelly. “We came out against a talented Bishop team. They really put it to us in the third and I’m proud of how our guys responded.”
Laguna Blanca showed little signs of spring-break rust as it took care of business in the opening two sets.
Bishop Diego showed fight, responding with a third set victory.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 6-2 lead to open the third set. They never ceded the lead, going up 19-9 at one point.
“In the third set, we served the ball really well, we hit pretty fearlessly, and we didn’t hit many bad shots,” said Bishop coach Dillan Bennett. “In the first two sets, we were controlling the ball well but didn’t have an aggressive mindset.”
Donnelly was confident his players would bounce back after the third-set loss.
“The boys are used to playing volleyball at a high level. We had a long break, haven’t played volleyball in two weeks. I didn’t say much to them, we just had to tighten up. (Bishop) took us away from what we wanted to do.”
The fourth set was all Laguna.
Although Bishop managed to claw its way back into the match, there was too much firepower from the Owls.
Thomas Couvillion led the way for Laguna with 24 kills and 11 digs. Liam Knezevic dished out 50 assists across the match.
On the defensive side, the Owls capitalized on their height advantage, recording seven blocks compared to Bishop Diego’s three.
Braylon Katers was a standout performer for Bishop, recording 18 kills and 16 digs.
Bennett seemed encouraged after the last two sets of the match.
“I said you competed with a bunch of guys who want to play volleyball in college and only play volleyball. We got a bunch of football, soccer, and basketball guys that are just competing and having fun. I told them, ‘If you want to compete and train hard the next couple of weeks, hopefully you got a better shot next week.’”
