In their first game of the season, under a different, defensive-minded approach, the San Benito girls volleyball team fell to Harbor High in three games (25-14, 25-20, 25-21) Tuesday night in Santa Cruz. But head coach Dean Askanas, who knows his young team will take its lumps in the preseason, saw plenty of positives.
After switching the lineup in the second game, Askanas said his Lady 'Balers began to click and started to play effectively.
"I was really pleased with the way they played. Harbor is a pretty good team," Askanas said. "There were a lot of good things and a lot of things we can improve upon."
The coach highlighted the play of senior Chelsea Freitas, who played outside, and noted her strong performance by playing "super-hard" defensively (12 digs), while also keeping the ball in play on offense - two areas Askanas felt will be needed this season in order for San Benito to be successful.
"For us, it's gonna be on defense this year," Askanas said, "and for our offense to not let us down."
Askanas also pinpointed the play of his three captains, including Justine Hunter (14 digs), Shayna Nakata (18 digs) and Sam Klauer (six digs).
Hunter, he said, was great moving the ball around, while Nakata and Klauer contributed stellar defensive performances.
Harbor, though, which was led at the setter position by Karissa Cook, who'll be attending Stanford next year on a volleyball scholarship, was "a little bigger and hit harder" than San Benito in the end, however.
"We're just gonna have to keep improving offensively," Askanas said. "We have to put the ball down more times."
Askanas said his team needs to work on positioning and serve-receive, among other things, while at the net, the head coach seeks improvement from his players in reading the hitter.
Said Askanas, "In order for us to improve, we need to pick up the hard hit and the tip."
The Lady 'Balers will seek improvement this weekend when they take to the 13-team Notre Dame-Salinas volleyball tournament, which will be played at both Notre Dame and Palma. San Benito will open with Carmel at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, while Aptos is also positioned in the team's bracket.
"I don't want us to take moral victories," Askanas said. "But I see that we're playing very hard and we have the potential to win, and I expect to start seeing wins on Saturday."
JV/FROSH:
Coach Askanas said that both the San Benito junior varsity and freshman volleyball teams defeated Harbor Tuesday in Santa Cruz, although no scores were reported.
Free Lance Sports Staff Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
Although the Hollister Free Lance does not have any obligation to monitor this board, the Hollister Free Lance reserves the right at all times to check this board and to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to the Hollister Free Lance in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. The Hollister Free Lance also reserves the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions. All threats to systems or site infrastructure shall be assumed genuine in nature and will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Submission of any comments will be considered permission to use online or in print.
The scene from today's shooting