Everything was going right for the McCurdy Charter School volleyball team, Aug. 31, as they faced off against Escalante High School at McCurdy.
Destiny Peabody, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, was using her height effectively for the Lady Bobcats, giving the Lady Lobos trouble putting the ball over the net. Maria DeVargas, a key outside hitter, went on a seven-point serving streak for McCurdy in the second game.
McCurdy won the first set, 25-12, and the second set, 25-18.
But something switched for Escalante as the team made their way into the third set.
“I think it was a lot of our fear and uncertainty, with new teammates, new rotations,” Escalante senior outside hitter Sarah Hurd said. “We have changed our rotations multiple times. Just a lot of different things and trust within each other. And then, we kind of woke up and stopped being afraid.”
The Lady Lobos took over the game, deflating the momentum that McCurdy had built, and they swept the next two sets, winning both the third and fourth set by a 25-20 margin.
Escalante forced a fifth and final set, which would go to 15 points. That last game was tied at 12-12, going into the final stretch, and then Hurd found her clutch instinct, putting away the last two points.
At match-point, Hurd slammed the ball into the McCurdy defense, having been set up smoothly, and her ball was dug by the Lady Bobcats. The ball flew up, in Hurd’s direction, and she batted it down for the game-winning point.
“She’s (Hurd) playing like a veteran early, which is very helpful, because the girls have faith in her,” Escalante head coach Tara Terrazas-Martinez said. “They trust her and the younger girls are learning from that and they’re buying into it.”
That loss places McCurdy with a .500 record of 2-2, and Escalante moved to 1-1, but they played two games since that match-up with McCurdy, and won each 3-0. So, the Lady Lobos are now 3-1.
The Lady Bobcats, who looked in control of the game at the start, had their moments of quality.
Seniors DeVargas, AnnaLisa Martinez and Marissa Sandoval all led the team with poise. They helped dominate the first set, only allowing Escalante 12 points. Libero Jayme Bustos, holding an important position for a sophomore, performed well on defense.
“They were very confident and talking to each other,” McCurdy head coach JuliAnn Martinez said. “Somewhere the communication broke down a little bit.”
Escalante is playing with a different team this year, having relied on the heroics of Tori Salazar, Alex Marquez and Victoria Valdez for years prior.
Despite this, they have a relatively experienced team that is loaded with eight seniors. They also have to rely upon a new coach, Terrazas-Martinez, who only stepped in to help coach volleyball after former head coach Vanessa Chavez was fired without a replacement.
The team has a new look to it, and even some of the veteran players are having to play in positions that are unfamiliar to them.
“Everybody is playing a new position,” Terrazas-Martinez said. “Last year, Martina (Mercure) was playing in the back, she took over libero, and now I have her front row. And she’s one of my smaller kids.”
Since Terrazas-Martinez is primarily a basketball coach, coaching the girls team at Escalante, she does not have the intricacies of the game under her belt, yet.
She credits Jessica Toya, a former volleyball player at California State University-Fresno, for passing on some advanced volleyball tips to the team.
“It’s not very often that we have a DI (NCAA Division I) player from our hometown that is able to come in and help out with the program and help the girls,” Terrazas-Martinez said. “She is seeing things that me and (assistant) coach Nathan (Rivas) know nothing about.”