Jaida Ward stuffs a Bulldog swing
Posted: Nov 27, 2019
In a playoff match emblematic of an 8th vs. a 9th seed, the West Valley volleyball team held off visiting San Mateo 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 in the opening round of the CCCAA NorCal Regionals Tuesday night. The #8 Vikings (20-8) and the #9 Bulldogs (18-9) battled back and forth all night, trading side-outs like commodities.
West Valley jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the all-important first set, but CSM rallied to grab a 17-16 advantage. A pair of kills by Jaida Ward pushed the Vikings to an 18-17 lead and then the teams traded points until a Renee Martin/Della Trimble block gave the Vikings the lead for good at 22-21. Hannah Moore connected on a swing to make it 23-21, but an attack error gave the Bulldogs the serve trailing 23-22. A thunderous Aaryan Hashimi kill gave the Vikings set point at 24-22 with Trimble serving. The Bulldogs were unable to mount an attack off the Trimble serve and WVC took a 1-0 match lead.
Sets two and three were mirror images, with both teams taking three and four point leads before West Valley pulled away at the end.
Rene Wash hit at a .382 clip to finish with a match-high 14 kills. Moore had 11 kills, six digs and a pair of crucial aces. Ward had eight kills, while Trimble handed out an astounding 41 assists, and Hannah Reynoso came up with 10 digs. The Vikings had six blocks, with Hashimi and Martin recording two and 1.5, respectively.
With the win, the Coast-South champion Vikings earned a trip to Quincy to face north #1 Feather River (31-2) on Saturday (11/30). The Golden Valley Conference champions swept West Hills-Coalinga 25-21, 25-9, 25-14 Tuesday night. First serve is slated for 6:00pm.
