Club volleyball team competes in San Mateo tourney Saturday, Sunday
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SAN MATEO >> The Never Say Die club volleyball team’s 18-and-under and 17-and-under squads opened the season with a tournament Saturday and Sunday in San Mateo.
The 18s went 2-4 overall and the 17s 1-5.
“The 17s took a while to gel for their first weekend,” Never Say Die head coach Marci Psalmonds said. “We were trying different rotations to see what works best and the girls were learning to play together. They had a lot of long rallies, but just came up short on those long rallies.”
Added Psalmonds, “By the end of Sunday, things started to click, Sand we saw a lot of good things going on. They finally got their first win in our last game of the tourney and by the score you can see it was a pretty impressive win.”
The 17s went 0-3 on Saturday, losing to Core (Dublin) 25-16, 25-18, UVA (East Bay), 25-10, 25-20, and OVA (Sacramento) 25-11, 25-20. They came back on Sunday to go 1-2, losing 23-25, 25-14, 15-7 to Lakas (Hayward) and 25-9, 25-14 to Aftershock (Santa Rosa) before beating Morgan Hill 25-23, 25-8 in their final match.
Among the 17s leaders were Bella Patti with 37 kills, 92 digs and seven aces, Ashlyn Wurm with 24 kills, 64 assists, 13 aces and 39 digs, Grace Hobbs with 14 kills, and Ati Patino with 112 digs.
Also for the 17s, Aliyah Valdez had 47 digs and Isa Barnes 44 digs, Kaylah Billig finished with six kills and 10 blocks, Lindee Bingham had six kills and 12 blocks, and Aniya Jauregui collected 17 assists, 10 aces and 21 digs.
The 18s went 2-1 on Saturday, losing to Roseville 25-16, 25-12 in their first match before rallying for wins against Slaint (San Francisco) 25-20, 17-25, 15-12, and Academy (Redwood City) 25-14, 25-14.
On Sunday, the 18s dropped matches to SF Elite 25-16, 25-20, Prism (Ukiah) 22-25, 25-15, 15-7, and Sand (Santa Cruz) 24-26, 25-18, 4-1.
“The girls came out a little tight on Saturday and dropped their first match, but settled in and finished strong, winning the next two,” Psalmonds said. “We had a lot of great, quick plays and the girls had some great serving with 24 aces to end the day with.”
Added Psalmonds, “Sunday was another story. We definitely came out slow and were a bit tired and sore. We dropped three games that we could have won. Even with the losses they were still smiling and just happy to be back on the court together.”
Team leaders were Carly Johnson with 24 kills, 11 blocks and 11 aces, Cali Schnabl with 88 digs, Olivia Hommer with 34 kills and 64 digs, Mati Mateer with 28 kills, 58 digs and 10 aces, Ashlyn Klein with 56 assists, and Emily Gersalia with 51 assists and 61 digs.
Other leaders were Aimee Schaefers with 14 kills and three blocks, Brooke Benson with 11 kills and five blocks, and Beverly Fetters with seven kills and three blocks.
“Both teams kept pushing throughout both days to get better,” Psalmonds said. “We played some great volleyball for our first tourney of the season and for only having two practices, and only one with everyone present. We are way ahead of where we were last year at this time. By the time we hit the court next month for our next tourney we will have all the kinks worked out and everyone will be playing on the same page.”
