JV Girls take tie-breaker match to win season series against Cal
10/20/2009
JV
Game: Tuesday October 20, 2009.

After losing the first set 19-25 (which Amador almost came back to win with some awesome serving by Tara Shreve), Coach Aaron gathered the girls for a pep talk during the intermission. The girls responded with intense focus during the remainder of the match. The second set started off with both teams exchanging points, with Amador scoring on a Rachel Cilk ace, hard kill by Jessica Averill (off a Laura Zollars set), and a sweet back court point by Shannon Butler. However, Cal kept up the pressure, tying the score at 10-10. After falling behind 11-12, Emilie Kapp made a nice diving save, which fell in for the point to tie the score back up. Becca Wolfinger then scored a point for a lead of 15-12. The Lady Dons continued to maintain the lead 21-17 after a serving ace by Meghan Burnett, a hard Cilk kill and Emily Diggins defending the net. After Cal called a timeout, they fought back to trail only by one at 22-21. However, multiple hustling saves by Butler, a huge Wolfinger block and an Averill kill helped Amador grow the lead to 24-21, eventually winning the set 25-23.

Fittingly, it came down to a 3-set tiebreaker to determine the winner of the season matchups. After a Cilk-Kapp-Wolfinger point started the 2nd set, Kapp served for 5 straight points (including 2 aces) as Amador took an early 6-0 lead. After a nice save by Diggins, Cal regrouped, and climbed back into the game, closing the gap to 9-8. Amador then regained the momentum after a nice Burnett-Butler-Diggins combination, and during a rally which included Tara Shreve showing great concentration digging the ball that banked off the basketball hoop, which Burnett smashed to the Cal side, was returned on a great Cal defensive play, but this time, Averill smacked a shot which bounced off the opponents defender high up into the ceiling speakers. Laura Zollars then came in and served an ace for an 11-8 lead. With score at 12-9, the momentum was in the balance during a long rally, with Butler making a diving save, and Shreve smashing a kill, which seemed to take the air out of the Cal team sails. Even after Cal called a timeout, Amador kept up the pressure with an Averill ace, and then a Burnett-Kapp-Cilk combo with an awesome smash which the defense could not handle, resulting in final score of 15-9.

Congratulations to the Lady Dons for moving into first place for the 2009 season.