For the first time ever, the Hart Hawks took the floor in a CIF matchup.
Hart girls’ volleyball dropped its season opener with the visiting La Canada Spartans, 3-1, on Tuesday, sparking a new era and season for the Hawks.
La Canada took the match, 25-17, 23-25, 25-13, 25-20.
The Spartans (3-0) were led by junior middle blocker Van Tatoulian, who towered over the Hawks (0-1) and poured in over 20 points with a mix of kills, blocks and aces.
Hart has new faces stepping up all over the court after five starters, who have all been key players since at least their junior years, graduated last spring.
“It’s a whole new year, even some familiar faces from last year are in slightly different positions, so it’s just a matter of fine tuning their roles, getting them into a consistent pattern, and producing and having new leaders,” said Hart coach Mary Irilian. “There’s been established leaders for the last three years. Even though I’ve got a lot of seniors, it’s still a young group in the sense of leadership, so we’re getting them to take more ownership of their season.”
Leading the offense for Hart was senior Allison Wieckowski, who finished with nine kills and three blocks.
Junior Olive Moore added five kills and a pair of blocks for the Hawks.
On defense, Ashley Dronen had hands everywhere over the net and tallied six blocks.
The Hawks were neck and neck with the Spartans in every set. For Irilian, consistency will be key for the team moving forward.
“We just were very slow to make adjustments, and that’s really crucial for us,” Irilian said. “So even though they’ve got their big middle and a couple big outsides, we just weren’t making the right moves even after seeing their direction of hitting repeatedly.”
La Canada pulled away after tight stretches in the first and third sets, winning by a sizable margin.
Hart ramped up the intensity and energy in the second set. Hawks libero Kai Agamata came up huge with back-to-back service aces that smacked the Spartans’ end line. La Canada kept it tight but a Wieckowski kill handed the Spartans their first dropped set of the season.
Errors piled on for La Canada in the third, allowing Hart to linger and fight for a shot. However, the Spartans caught fire on the back of Tatoulian, who spearheaded a 12-2 run to close out the third game.
The Spartans jumped ahead again in the fourth behind a 6-0 run, which was promptly ended by a kill from Moore. The Hawks again hung in there and came together promptly after looking out of sync for a small stretch.
Hart took advantage of some sloppy passing and serve receiving from La Canada but just couldn’t close the gap enough in the final set.
The loss wasn’t demoralizing or crushing. While Hart will aim to win every game, there were still plenty of bright spots as the Hawks look to repeat as Foothill League champions.
“Our goal and expectation is always to win league,” Irilian said. “No one wants to settle for less. So we have a lot of work to do to get to that point.”
On top of it just being the first of many matches this season, Hart has now dropped four straight season-opening matches. The program has enjoyed regular and postseason success in each of the past four years, perhaps displaying that the Hawks will be just fine come Foothill League play.
“They’re coming along. They don’t have a choice,” Irilian said. “The expectations are always high and so the demand in practice is high. We’re on everyone equally. So whether you’re a senior or freshman, the expectations and standards are the same. They have to be dialed in very fast, which it’s going to hurt them this year in the sense of the struggle, but moving forward, they’ll pick up on it and produce better in the future years to come.”
While the Hawks prepare to start all of their fall sports, gym renovations are still on the way. All former Indian paintings and decor have been removed and new Hawk renditions are being worked on.
Hart will regroup and focus on the Tesoro Varsity tournament this weekend. Irilian will hope to see the team lock in for another long season and peak come playoff time.
“We just have to keep pushing forward. We can’t afford any setbacks,” Irilian said. “The girls need to know that they have to work even harder now in practice to push for a good tournament this weekend, and then push for a good match with Stockdale, they have to keep looking ahead. I think if they keep their focus on that, they’ll build that momentum for us and put us on the right track.”
