It was playoff-level volleyball at Castaic High School as the Coyotes and Taft Toreadors battled through five sets for the win.
Taft (2-1) defeated Castaic (1-1) in a five-set thriller, 25-23, 25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 15-10.
Despite the loss, head coach Taylor Schubert is proud of her team’s performance and insists the game’s energy is what she wants from her program moving forward.
“The second set was not our best, and like I told them after, ‘That was the old way of Castaic,’ we’re trying to have a new way of thinking of how we can get better,” Schubert said. “They really took to heart of like, ‘No, we’re going to change. We’re in a different team, this is a different new era of Castaic.’ So, the next two sides were great on the third set, a few mistakes here and there. You got some young players, but they’re doing great.”
The first set was a battle. The Coyotes took a late lead in the set at 19-18 after a kill from opposite hitter Leyla Buena.
However, Taft was unable to be put away early and the Toreadors bounced back after mistakes from Castaic’s offense with Taft taking the first set.
In the following set, Taft jumped into an early 11-2 lead after a nine-point scoring run to begin the set. A kill from Castaic’s Arielle Greene stopped the bleeding to cut the deficit to eight. Ultimately Castaic would fall behind with Taft extending their lead to a commanding 18-4 lead after a Coyote hitting error.
Despite a comeback from the Coyotes’ offense to the cut the deficit to seven at 24-17, Taft’s Laila Braimah closed out the second set and put the Coyotes in danger of getting swept in straight sets.
After the set, Schubert held a long talk with her team in a huddle before the third, relaying the message that this year’s Castaic is indeed, “a different team, this is a different new era of Castaic.”
Castaic came out of the huddle with a point to prove. Both teams battled back and forth and were tied at 6 apiece after a Castaic block. After a Taft service error to extend Castaic’s lead to 11-8, all the momentum was with the Coyotes.
Taft would keep fighting back but Castaic won the third set and forced a fourth.
Castaic fell behind in the fourth set after Taft took an early 5-1 lead. And Taft would extend that lead to 9-4 after a Castaic hitting error.
But after an explosive kill from Green to cut the deficit to four, Castaic rallied to tie the set at 10 apiece after Taft committed a net violation.
“Arielle is a rockstar,” Schubert said. “She can hit the ball hard, she jumps high. Today I thought she had it. When she takes a rip out off the ball, you can see how it changes games and our momentum.”
Castaic won the fourth set by a five-point margin at 25-20, forcing a fifth and final decisive set.
The Coyotes would start off with the lead on another Greene kill and extend it further to 4-1 after a Taft hitting error. But mistakes from the Coyotes would keep Taft alive and tie the set at four.
The Toreadors wound up going on a three-point scoring run with consecutive kills to put the score at 9-6 for Taft and would never relinquish the lead.
In the end, Taft’s Braimah ended the game with a deciding kill, winning the fifth set at 15-10 and avoid the reverse sweep.
After the game, Schubert sat with her players and told them she was proud of their effort in the game and that type of intensity is needed for the games that follow.
“I told them, ‘Let’s play like this, maybe not the first few sets, but how we started the last couple sets,’” Schubert said. “We start like that, I think we have a really good chance to do much better in league that we ever have.”
Castaic plays again later today for their first Foothill League game of the year at Golden Valley, with the game scheduled at 5 p.m.
