On the night when Hart High School was celebrating Hawks’ head coach Mary Irilian’s 20th season with the volleyball program, Castaic spoiled the party, edging Hart for the win.
The Coyotes defeated the Hawks in four sets, 25-22, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19, for their second league win of the year.
Before the game, Irilian spoke to the crowd in the gym, thanking the school and reflecting on those who helped along her coaching career.
“I am truly grateful and thankful for all the support over the years,” Irilian said. “Being a former Hart student myself and a part of the volleyball program, I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to continue building this culture and program that I just wanted to be a part of and to continue on the tradition of excellence that we have here in the high school.”
Following the win over Hart, Castaic head coach Taylor Schubert gave Irilian her flowers and credits her coaching for keeping Schubert on her toes with adjustments throughout the game.
“She was around when I was playing, so to hit 20 years, I look at like, I don’t know if I would ever do 20 years,” Schubert said jokingly. “But no, she’s a great coach. I told the team, ‘She’s going to make changes every set or adjust and it’s going to be hard.’ But I respect her very much.”
In the first set, Hart (1-6, 1-1) was off to a hot start. The Hawks took an early 5-1 lead over Castaic (6-4, 2-1) after a hitting error from the Coyotes offense.
But it wasn’t long before Castaic fought back. Back-to-back hitting errors from Hart’s offense and a kill from Castaic’s Bella Flores tied the set at 7 apiece.
Both teams would battle back and forth but Castaic took a 19-16 lead over Hart after a kill from Amelie Francisco. The Coyotes wound up winning the set by a three-point margin after a Hart hitting error.
With an early 3-1 lead over Hart in the second set after another kill from Connor, Castaic kept up its momentum.
Leading 7-4 after a block from Connor resulted in a point for her team, Hart responded with an explosive kill from Francisco to shift the energy back to Hart.
The Hawks tied the set at 9 apiece after Francisco delivered another kill and took control the rest of the second set. Olive Moore landed a kill for Hart, and the Hawks tied the game at one set apiece going into the third.
In the third set, Castaic looked like a much different team. The Coyotes took a commanding 6-0 lead over Hart after a hitting error.
Despite the rally from Hart to cut the deficit within one at 10-9 after a kill from Moore, Castaic’s Leyla Buela delivered back-to-back kills to keep Hart at bay.
Freshman Arielle Greene landed a kill to extend the lead over Hart, 21-16, and brought the energy back to her team to finish out the set for the win.
“She’s a difference maker for us,” Schubert said. “I had to talk with her yesterday like, ‘Hey, I need you to be on for us,’ because when you’re on, we’re a different team,’ and she did that today.”
Castaic closed out the game with a fourth-set win over Hart, taking a commanding 5-1 lead following a Hart hitting error and never looking back.
Schubert credited the win to the team’s mindset, reiterating that all the hard work they’ve been putting in since the end of last season is finally paying off.
“We’ve been talking about it all season, kind of even at the end of last season that we had to change our mindset,” Schubert said. “And they believed and did it and all the hard work we put in so far this summer, and the beginning of the season has paid off.”
The Coyotes pick up league action again on Tuesday back at home, hosting Canyon with the game set to begin at 5 p.m.
