Pitman might have a younger varsity volleyball team this season as opposed to last, but they are still a dominant force in the Central California Conference.
Yisel Perez and Whitney Barnes combined for 23 kills in Wednesday’s home CCC contest against Buhach Colony after an antsy start but the Pitman Pride (14-1, 4-0), were able to silence the Thunder as they squashed them in a 3-0 sweep to win their fourth straight league contest, (25-21, 25-12 and 25-19).
“They [Buhach] have a good team and I think they have younger girls coming up from last year and they put up good blocks and were scrappy, but our girls battled,” said Pitman assistant head coach Hailee Hernandez. “There at the end we took off and did not look back.”
After a closer first game than they had anticipated, coach Hernandez began to move things around on the court and in the second game, they dominated and executed the game-plan to perfection, winning by 13 points.
“We came back and the next game we adjusted to what they ran as far as offense goes,” said Hernandez. “They did well but we set things up the middle and were putting it down the net when we needed to.”
In game three, Buhach got a couple of solid points on Pitman and even took a one point lead during the contest, which was the only deficit of the night for Pitman.
“In game three, they got us sometimes, but we adjusted and pulled our passes from the net and from there we got the hang of it and they put up a good fight,” said Hernandez.
Kiyanna Torres added a game-high 36 assists and Kaylin Randhawa finished with seven kills and five blocks. Kaylene Ureno notched five blocks and Marlowe Embry tacked on 10 digs along with three aces.
“At the end we had some good rallies and the girls fought through and they pushed which is always good,” said Hernandez. “Our outside hitters came out ready to block and change things up and everyone did a good job of reading everything in the back as well.
“After tonight’s game we did some great things, coverage was a ton better than it has been. We attacked the ball and it was chaotic with lots of blocks but we stayed level headed, which prepares us to play in competitive tourneys,” she added.
Pitman will next compete in the Tiger Cup tournament at Redwood City, beginning this Saturday against Sequoia at a time yet to be announced.
