In a game that held major playoff implications, both Valencia girls’ volleyball and the Hawks fought till the very end at Hart High School.
In the end, Valencia defeated Hart in five sets, 17-25, 25-13, 25-22, 19-25, 15-10, to even the season series after a loss to the Hawks earlier in the year.
“To be honest, I’ve been at Valencia for a while now and I don’t ever remember winning here,” Valencia head coach Kristin Dolan said. “This is so exciting. I remember the last few years we’ve ended up in tears and today, we get to leave victorious.”
The match started with the first set tied at 13 apiece when Sam Romero of the Hawks (12-14, 3-4) landed a kill. Romero’s kill would be the first of five straight points and Hart led 17-13 as Valencia (13-12, 4-3) had no answer for Hart’s offense.
Hart ended the set on an 8-4 scoring run and won, 25-17, as the Hawks capitalized off the mistakes from Valencia’s offense, including hitting errors in that final stretch.
In the second set, the Hawks started with a 3-0 lead over Valencia with two aces from Catherine Brill. But before the Hawks extended their lead, the Vikings took a 5-3 lead as they scored five straight points following an offensive error from Hart.
The Vikings went on a 13-3 scoring run that was led by opposite hitter Kailee Howard, who landed an explosive kill in that span.
With an 18-6 lead, the Hawks chipped away into Valencia’s lead to cut the deficit to nine, but by the end of the set, the Vikings evened out the game.
In the third set, the Vikings’ offense took a commanding 13-3 lead following an offensive error from Hart. And as it looked like Valencia was about to run away with the set win, the Hawks came back to tie the set with a 16-6 scoring run to tie the set at 19 apiece.
With the gym crowd cheering loudly for the Hawks, Valencia’s offense tuned out the noise and closed out the set on a 6-3 run with sophomore Nyla Willstead landing the final kill.
With a 2-1 set score, both teams battled back and forth in the fourth. The teams tied at 13 apiece following a kill from Moore.
The Hawks’ offense began to put its rallies together to jump ahead of the Vikings and led 20-16 after an offensive error by Valencia.
With a 24-19 lead, Moore landed the kill to clinch the set after a nearly two-minute rally between both teams that saw the opposite hitter attempt five different attacking attempts on Valencia.
After the kill, Moore’s teammates celebrated with her as she led her team into the fifth and final decisive set.
In the fifth set, the teams exchanged kills and aces until Valencia led 7-3 following a hitting error by Moore. The Vikings closed out the set with the win following a kill from Howard, who earned praise from her head coach after the game.
“Kailee has worked so hard to get to this point, and that last swing on game point is just so huge,” Dolan said. “Fearless, is how I’d described it.”
After giving Howard her flowers, Dolan reiterated that the win was a total team effort from the offense, saying the performances from Taijah Ellis and Willstead played a big factor.
“The middle showed up, Taijah and Nyla, they all just showed up,” Dolan said. “And they did their jobs, and it was so much fun.”
With the win over Hart, Valencia holds the third spot in the Foothill League standings, and in a league that is so challenging, Dolan wants her team to focus one game at a time.
“Hopefully this win propels us forward. Canyon’s going to be tough, Saugus is going to be tough, everyone’s tough,” Dolan said. “So, we just have to reset. We can’t live in the victory of today and we got to start preparing for Canyon immediately and that’ll be the plan.”
Valencia plays again on Tuesday at home, hosting Canyon with the game set to begin at 5 p.m.
