East Union’s Gabriel Holguin had four blocks Monday night, but one of them ended the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III play-in match with visiting Buhach Colony.

With momentum hanging in the balance and the Thunder (8-13) of Atwater having scored three of the previous four points in the fifth and deciding set, Holguin went high to hammer down the last shot from Buhach Colony for a thrilling 25-19, 25-17, 19-25, 19-25, 15-10 win.

“I was so proud to see my boys work so hard and stay focused to finish out the match with a win,” Lancers coach Tevani Liotard said. “I've believed in the boys all year, and I told them now is the time for us to all shine and play the Lancer way – tough, consistent and moving our feet.”

Holguin tallied eight kills, four blocks and an ace.

“We lost a lot of our energy in the third set,” Holguin said. “We made a lot of mistakes.

“That’s something we have to work on but we only have one day until we play the first seed. I think that’s what drove us the most is wanting to play the best.

Guadalupe Reyes-Cabrero led East Union with 12 kills two aces, six service points and four assists.

“We had a great first two sets,” Reyes Cabrero said. “Obviously, we declined a little bit, but eventually we got it back up. The energy was great.

“Sometimes we didn’t play as a team but in the end we came together as a team, which was amazing. I’m really happy we made it to playoffs and I can’t wait to play with this team again tomorrow.”

Marvin Menor dished out 14 assists for the Lancers and had an ace while Isaac Serrato tallied 16 assists.

“Most of my sets were inside or outside,” Menor said. “I think tomorrow we can do a lot better.

“I think this game could have gone by so much quicker if we didn’t make all those errors.”

According to Liotard, East Union libero Keenan Yang (12 digs, five service points) was instrumental in his team’s success.

“It was very emotional tonight,” Yang said. “We came out the first two sets and did well and then things started going downhill.

“The fifth set was very emotional and we pulled it off.”

Xavier Gaspar (two blocks, two aces) posted seven kills for the Lancers with six kills for Gabriel Estabillo (12 service points, five digs, two aces), five kills for Gabriel Torres (block) and four kills for Jacob Padilla (block).

Chase Silveira led the Thunder with 10 kills, and Angadveer Virk added nine.

“There was a moment where I thought we would be going home early,” Buhach Colony coach Lauren Leonardo said. “But I am sure glad they turned it around.

“We are a very young team, so coming into today, we kind of knew that there could be a possibility we could have little bit of a mental block because of our youth. I told them going into the third set that we had nothing to lose and they came out and did great.”

East Union travels to Folsom tonight to face No. 1 Vista del Lago at 6 p.m.