After winning the first two sets over the Golden Valley Grizzlies, the West Ranch Wildcats looked poised to come away with the straight-set sweep on the road.
But after the Wildcats dropped the third and fourth sets to the Grizzlies, Tuesday’s back-and-forth thriller had to be decided in the fifth.
The Wildcats came out on top to win in five sets, 25-22, 25-20, 14-25, 20-25, 15-10, and secured their first Foothill League win of the season.
“The human nature in a fifth set like that, teams tend to get timid. And I don’t think that is the most successful way to play a set five,” West Ranch head coach Brandon Johnson said. “I think that volleyball rewards you when you are playing hard when you’re playing aggressive, and when you’re just showing constant fight, and I thought we did that in set five.”
After the game, Johnson said his Wildcats (4-5, 1-1) just didn’t match the energy from the Grizzlies (4-8, 1-2) in the third and fourth sets but relayed to his team to wait for their moment to get a rally.
“I just told the boys as long as we were taking care of passing, as long as we’re taking care of defense, we were going to be successful, and that’s what we did in the fifth set,” he said.
In the fifth set, the Grizzlies took an early 7-4 lead that prompted a timeout from West Ranch.
After the timeout, the Wildcats went on an 11-3 scoring run and secured the win over Golden Valley.
West Ranch senior opposite hitter Skyler Hillemann ended the day with 16 kills and 17 digs. And, West Ranch junior setter Stephen Choi finished with 34 assists and 14 digs.
Wildcats’ freshman Jake Douphner also tallied 10 kills across all five sets.
The Wildcats are set to play their next league game on Thursday as they host the visiting Saugus Centurions, with the first serve at 5:30 p.m.
The Grizzlies will look to bounce back on Thursday with another home matchup against the visiting Hart Hawks.
The game between the Hawks and Grizzlies is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
After Tuesday’s games, here are scores from around the Foothill League:
Hart 3, Castaic 0: The Hart Hawks (5-4, 1-1) completed the straight-set sweep over the Castaic Coyotes, 25-22, 25-19, 25-22.
The Hawks play again on Thursday at Golden Valley against the Grizzlies. The Coyotes (9-2, 1-2) will look to bounce back at home against the visiting Canyon Cowboys on Thursday.
Both games are set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Valencia 3, Saugus 1: The Valencia Vikings (7-6, 3-0) defeated the Saugus Centurions (6-4, 2-1) in four sets, 25-19, 17-25, 27-25, 25-22.
The Vikings improve to 3-0 in league play and will look to build upon their momentum on Tuesday in a home matchup against the Castaic Coyotes.
The loss dropped the Centurions to 2-1 in league play and they will look to bounce back at West Ranch High School against the Wildcats.
Both games are set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
