First-Year Lady Lobo head coach Henry Gettler has the Escalante High School volleyball team off to a hot start in 2018, improving to 2-0 after defeating Cuba High School on the road Sept. 1, 3-0 (25-12, 25-20, 25-22).
Elyssa Baca led the team with 17 digs and her play along the back line helped team captain Sydnee DeYapp record 25 of the team’s 32 assists.
“Elyssa Baca was huge on the back line, which allowed for Sydnee to assist on a lot of down balls,” Gettler said. “Way too early for a team MVP, but Elyssa would be a leading candidate for sure — she was awesome versus Cuba and McCurdy.”
Hailey Whitaker and Aubrianna Hinds lead the offense in kills. Whitaker had 12 against McCurdy Charter School Aug. 30 and added nine more against Cuba, leading the team in both matches.
The only negative thus far was Hinds going down with an ankle sprain during the third set against Cuba with Escalante leading 16-14. Gettler said the sprain is “severe” and a timetable for her return is not clear.
The Lady Lobos opened the season with a road victory at McCurdy, winning that match 3-1 (25-23, 25-16, 23-25, 25-15). Although they began to control the match in the third set and latter part of the fourth, Escalante faced plenty of adversity as they fell behind 18-12 in both the first and second sets before rallying.
“With the intensity that we have, we know we can still play a lot better,” DeYapp said about falling behind early in those sets. “All the mistakes made are from our side. We know we can be a better team and come together as one to unify, but the things that get us down in deficit and points is our mistakes, not what the other team is doing.”
The fourth set had the same, familiar story, as Escalante fell behind 3-1, but then grasped back the momentum and left McCurdy shaking their heads after scoring 11 consecutive points to extend their lead to 12-3. The 11-0 run helped Escalante stretch their lead to 21-11 later in the set before finishing it at 25-15.
“All the little things were working (in the fourth set),” DeYapp said. “It’s just focusing and using our intensity and what we have invested in the game.”
Gettler said he saw the tempo change and credited the comebacks to keeping the deficits as close as possible.
“Anytime we get down we just try to keep the gap close,” he said. “Don’t let too much gap get into the game because we don’t have any overpowering hitters, but we do have girls who can put the ball in places we need. As long as we can manage the game in gap scores, that helps us a ton, as well as our tempo – we started playing faster and shortening our passes and that’s huge for us, and our conditioning. We just kept going and going.”
McCurdy head coach Roberto DeVargas was not disappointed with his team’s effort and believes he has a solid group to work with.
“There’s not too many tweaks I have to make as far as changes,” he said. “I will make a few, but we’re a strong team, we are. I was impressed with Devyn Cordova, but I’ll probably make a few changes as far as substitutions and try to keep the girls in a little longer—and that’s basically it.”
The Lady Bobcats currently sit 1-2 after splitting two games in the Santa Fe Waldorf Tournament Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. They defeated To’hajiilee 3-0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-12), but then were swept 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-12) by Waldorf. They will be back on the court at 5 p.m., Saturday at home against Coronado High School.