Lady Leopards sweep Lady Lobos in Gettler’s return, remain undefeated
Surprisingly, the Coronado High School volleyball team discussed very little about its head coach’s return to square off against his former team in the Escalante High School Lady Lobos.
However, the players, including senior defensive specialist Jaylene Jacquez, knew the Lady Leopards’ Oct. 10 road match at Escalante carried a little extra importance.
Not only was Coronado trying to protect its undefeated 13-0 record and improve to 4-0 in District 5-2A, but the players also wanted to make sure their first-year head coach had a successful outcome against the school that fired him after last season.
When the time came, the Escalante gym was nearly packed to capacity for the match, and the schools’ student sections battled back and forth with chants for and against the coach of the hour.
While the Coronado students would scream, “Mr. Gettler” in succession and “undefeated,” Escalante students would bark back with, “Mr. Gettler…who’s that?”
The building was full of excitement, but all it took was three sets for Coronado to suck all the energy out of the building — all while adding a bit of its own from its student section — and defeat Escalante handedly, 3-0 (25-9, 25-22, 25-20).
“Having him come here as our coach against his old team, we had to have his back,” Jacquez said. “We came in nervous — half the girls I think — because we knew we were going to have a crowd like this.”
The Lady Leopards took advantage of holes in Escalante’s defense all night, something Gettler credited to his girls’ determination at the net.
Coronado racked up 38 total kills, with a lead performance from Raegan Cordova, who recorded 11. Jazmyn Delgado and Sulema Archuleta added eight apiece and middle Janessa Madrid had seven.
“We pride ourselves at being very efficient at the net,” Gettler said. “We don’t blow up a lot of shots; we consistently get the ball over and in spots. We are consistently hitting the hole. Some people can do it once, but we are doing it consistent, and that’s huge.”
Coronado played its most crisp, sound volleyball in the match’s first game, as libero Brianna Nieto (led team with 21 digs) and the Lady Leopards’ back row picked up nearly every ball that came their way.
The clean passing effort in the set helped setter Hailey Martinez (25 assists) distribute the ball at will, as Coronado recorded 14 kills in the set. Leading 7-6 early, the Lady Leopards ended game 1 on an 18-3 run.
Escalante woke up in game 2 and played more efficient. Despite losing the set and falling behind 0-2, the Lady Lobos did carry over some much-needed momentum to game 3.
Escalante jumped out to a quick 5-1 advantage and Coronado did not threaten to take the lead until Delgado recorded an ace to tie the score at 17-all.
“We knew we just kept having to work together and get the ball back over the net, somehow,” Madrid said about the third set. “We needed a good run, and we knew we could get one.”
That run would begin on the rally following Delgado’s ace when Escalante was penalized for the first of three carries in Coronado’s last eight points, including the final point of the match.
After the first two violations, the Lady Lobos became hesitant with the ball in their possession, helping Coronado easily read what was coming over the net, thus giving the Lady Leopards a head start in constructing their responding offensive attack.
“They went through a series there were they were afraid to use their hands for a long time,” Gettler said about Escalante. “They were out of system and they were nervous with their hands for a long time.”
After improving to 14-0 and defeating his old team, Gettler claimed the last 15 minutes of practice the day before the match was the only time he and his team talked among themselves about his past affiliation with Escalante, and the conversation was strictly on strategy.
With the presence of Mia Terrazas and Kalese Torrez at the net for the Lady Lobos, Gettler knew joust coverage could play a big part in the match’s outcome.
“We knew they hit the net hard, so we went joust after joust after joust,” he said. “That’s the one time we talked about it (my familiarity with Escalante). They thought practice was over, but we stayed and did 15 straight minutes of joust coverage. We probably saved a good seven or eight points tonight on joust coverage.”
Coronado has six regular season matches remaining on its District schedule, and four of those matches will be at home.
Two are against winless Mesa Vista High School, and the Lady Leopards retake the court Wednesday (10/16) at Mesa Vista Gymnasium.
“I just hope we stay undefeated,” Jacquez said. “I think we can do it; I know we can. He’s (Gettler) pushed us to our potential and made us believe we can do it.”