With the first half of the Foothill League season now over, Saugus girls’ volleyball ended the first round of league play with a road win over Castaic.
The Centurions swept the Coyotes in straight sets, 25-15, 25-12, 25-18, and secured their 21st win of the season.
“We’re always building to get better. We’re now starting to get some film and seeing how we play against each league team and make the adjustments,” Saugus head coach Zachary Ambrose said. “I don’t think we’ve hit our ceiling yet for the season so it’s encouraging that we can maybe take it up another couple of notches and play even better down the road.”
Saugus (21-4, 5-1) opened the game with an 11-4 lead after a kill from opposite hitter Taylor Stires.
Stires, who recorded her career high in kills with 24 in the win over Cleveland last week, led Saugus again to the victory with 10 kills on 32 attack attempts.
The Centurions extended their lead over the Coyotes (9-7, 2-4) by double digits following an ace by Valeria Mejia to lead, 19-9.
The Coyotes cut the lead to six, scoring four straight points following a kill from Paige Hanks.
But despite the comeback attempt from Castaic in the first set, Saugus closed out the set with a 6-2 scoring run with Stires who landed a kill for the win.
In the second set, the Coyotes took the lead over Saugus, 4-1, but the Centurions came back to tie the set at four apiece after freshman Emily Tran hit an ace.
The Centurions’ offense exploded following Tran’s ace and went on a 14-5 scoring run with Valeria Mejia landing an explosive kill for the 18th point.
“Valeria is another young player who I think is getting a little bit more confident every game,” Ambrose said. “It’s her first year being the starting outside hitter in a pretty deep league. So, I’m excited that she’s starting to really connect and believe in her shots.”
Mejia closed out the second with a kill and secured the set win for Saugus, 25-12.
In the third set, the teams were tied after a service error from Kimora Hogains at five apiece. But a kill from Mejia shifted the momentum back to Saugus with the team scoring six straight points until the Coyotes landed a kill to stop the bleeding.
Both teams rallied throughout the set, but Saugus secured the third set victory for the sweep following a kill from Hogains and ace from Tran to end the game.
With the first half of the Foothill League season complete, Saugus remains in second place in the standings at 5-1 just behind West Ranch, which is undefeated through six games.
Despite being two games ahead of third-place Hart, Ambrose understands that his players need to bring their best in the second half of the season as anyone in the Foothill League can win on a given day.
“I know we’ve won with some sweeps, and Valencia pushed us to five, but everyone is beating everybody else, making the middle of the pack pretty jumbled up,” Ambrose said. “If we don’t bring our best, I think anyone can come up and sneak a win off us. I don’t want to look past anyone. We’re going to watch film, and we’re going to work on these deficiencies that we have so we can be even better.”
Both the Centurions and Castaic pick up league action again Thursday, Sept. 25, with Saugus on the road at Canyon and the Coyotes hosting Golden Valley.
