With the first half of the Foothill League schedule over, West Ranch girls’ volleyball has gone undefeated through six games and done so without giving up a set.
The Wildcats swept Canyon in straight sets, 25-16, 25-19, 25-18, and secured their 10th overall win of the season.
“We’re a deep team. Everybody on the roster is really solid,” head coach Jamey Ker said. “We’ve been able to play with different lineups and still be successful, and I think that attributes to our depth and intensity.”
West Ranch (10-3, 6-0) and Canyon (4-18, 2-4) opened the game battling back and forth in the first set. The Cowboys led the Wildcats early on at 8-7 but the Wildcats tied the score after Grace Kelley landed a kill.
That momentum from Kelley pushed the Wildcats to expand their lead over Canyon, 12-8, following a hitting error from the Cowboys’ offense.
The Wildcats extended their lead over Canyon with an 8-3 scoring run to lead 20-11 after Kendall Gustin executed a kill.
But the momentum shifted back to the Cowboys after a few mistakes from West Ranch allowed its lead to be cut to six. Despite the errors from the Wildcats, West Ranch closed out the first set with a win following a kill by Dani Clewis.
In the second set, West Ranch trailed 7-3 to open the set to Canyon following a hitting error from its offense. Costly mistakes dug a hole for West Ranch, but a Gioia Nicolas-Piccolino kill set them back on track.
Following her kill, West Ranch cut the deficit to two at 12-10 after a hitting error from Parys Taylor. And after Devyn Kobe landed an ace and kill in back-to-back plays, the set was tied at 13 apiece.
“Really all our league is our attempt to be perfect and an opportunity for us to be at least attempt to be, and that’s the demand that I’m placing on them,” Ker said. “And I think when we struggle at those things, they tend to bleed into everything else and we struggled at doing the little things perfect tonight, and I think that’s what let them catch up to us a little bit.”
Both teams battled through the rest of the set, but West Ranch pulled ahead 23-19 after back-to-back kills from Kobe. The Wildcats closed out the second set with a Kelley ace, carrying that momentum into the third, where they opened with a 4-0 lead.
Despite a rally from Canyon to cut the Wildcats’ lead to two, West Ranch extended its lead to 10-4 with a Kobe kill.
The Wildcats closed out the set with a Clewis serve to Kelley that landed the ball for a kill and secured the win over Canyon.
After the game Ker spoke on the partnership between Clewis and Ker and how their chemistry gives the team the ability to close out sets.
“The connection is pretty unstoppable at this point,” Ker said. “It’s something that I’m almost comfortable having [Kelley] run every single time at this point because she’s just so dang good with Dani and her connection.”
Following the win, Ker is proud of his team for remaining undefeated through the first round of league play but wants his team to be consistent in their performance and acknowledges that a midseason slump is an obstacle the team can overcome.
“I think we’ve done a really good job of continuing to be intentional with what we do throughout the season,” Ker said. “Tonight, I think we struggled a little bit with that. I think there’s that midseason slump and we’re getting too comfortable. I’m hoping tonight was a little bit of a wakeup call that we can’t get comfortable, we have a whole 50% of the season and then playoffs to get through.”
West Ranch plays again next Thursday at home, hosting Campbell Hall with the game set to begin at 5 p.m.
As for Canyon, the Cowboys pick up league action next Thursday on the road at Saugus.
