Early in the third set Thursday night, Sierra’s Sophia Marian toed the service line against visiting East Union and went on a 6-0 run, scoring the final three points of the run on a pair of aces and a back-row kill. The Timberwolves never trailed in that final set and swept the Lancers 25-18, 25-17, 25-9 on the next-to-last night of the Valley Oak League volleyball campaign.

“Serving has always been something that has been really iffy with us,” Marian said. “We are either really on or a little off. So tonight for our last league home game, I really just wanted to play for my fellow seniors and I knew I had to get it over and get good serves. 

“Taking the stress of focusing so hard on winning away kind of helped me.”

Zoe Kossart led the net attack for Sierra (6-3 VOL, 18-9 overall) with 12 kills along with six digs and three aces.

“It’s our last home game of the regular season,” Kossart said. “We just wanted to take the pressure off ourselves, so I just told me teammates to get me the ball and I would hit it.

“I just wanted to have as much fun as I could and hit the ball hard.”

Abigail Chapman (six kills, four blocks and three digs) got the final points of the first and third sets on resounding blocks, and nearly ended the second game on a hard kill, but the Lancers (3-6, 15-17) were able to play her final kill attempt. Marian (eight kills, five digs and four aces) ended the second set on a kill. 

“Our blocking went really well,” Chapman said. “When we get big blocks it hypes our team up a lot and sometimes the bocks slow the ball down for the back row.

“It pushes us to keep getting points.”

Sophia Threet dished out 22 assists and made three digs for the Timberwolves. Cianna Leonardo added 11 assists, four digs and an ace with six digs apiece for Ellie Denny and Karlie Burns.

“We have been kind of struggling with our energy,” Sierra coach Kim Ellis said. “So the focus was coming out, having fun with high energy and trying to focus with being the loudest person on the court.

“That definitely puts the domino effect into playing with high energy. We have put ourselves under a lot of stress so I told them that won or lose, they had to have fun and I know that we have the skills that if we are having fun that leads us into playing better.”

Meritiana Luani (four assists, ace, kill) made 21 digs for East Union, Jatziry Garcia (three kills, two assists) added 16 digs, Gisele Velazquez 15 digs with 12 digs apiece for Valerie Lugo (three assists, three kills, two blocks) and Lena Costigliolo, nine digs for Marcella Carranza (nine assists, ace) and two digs for Laura Montanez (seven assists). Mariela Navarro (six kills) and Katelyn Trevino (four kills) chipped in three blocks apiece.  

In the first two sets the Lancers forced seven ties, but East Union did not lead after 10 points in either set.

“In the first two games we battled and we had a lot of good rallies,” Lancers coach Michelle Sims said. “The girls were adjusting and played really hard. In the third game we just came out flat-footed, we didn't play our game and we never picked it back up.

“We need to learn from this and move on. We play Manteca next week so we will start preparing for Tuesday.” 

East Union had a three-match VOL win streak snapped and entered Thursday night’s contest one point behind Oakdale for the fourth and final playoff lot. The Lancers travel to Manteca on Tuesday night at 6:15 for the regular-season finale. The Timberwolves have secured either the second or third playoff slot and wrap up league play Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. at Kimball.

Junior varsity
Sierra 2, East Union 0

Hannah Threet hammered eight kills and an ace to lead the Timberwolves to a 25-10, 25-13 win.

Danica Cesante added eight assists, seven aces and a dig with three kills and four assists for Gurjaap Kaur and three kills, two digs, an assist and an ace for Amari Currey.

Gwen Barker (six digs) and Ava Barrera made two kills apiece for the Lancers. Jill Ramirez added four assists and two digs with four digs for Lauren Alegre and one kill for Fatima Cornejo.

Freshman
Sierra 2, East Union 0

Luna Lopez helped serve the Timberwolves to a 25-21, 25-15 win with five aces and five kills. Kylee Pimentel added seven assists, three aces and a kill, Kaylee Rodriguez had four digs and a kill with three kills for Angelica Arenas and an ace and three digs for Rachel Dole.

Kaylee Braun paced the Lancers with 10 assists and two aces. Andy Guibor added two aces with seven digs each for Addy Soulier and Chantell Ochoa and a kill apiece for Avi Menzel, Jocelyn Pena and Andi Guibor.