PLACENTIA – The senior class of the Esperanza girls volleyball team never had defeated El Dorado entering Thursday’s Century League opener.
That’s not the case anymore.
The Aztecs survived a fifth-set rally from the Golden Hawks to seal the victory, 17-25, 25-17, 25-18, 17-25, 16-14.
Senior Gabi Nguyen led the Aztecs (11-3, 1-0) with 18 kills, and senior Alexus Winters had seven aces and 10 kills.
“We wanted to beat them El Dorado because they’ve been on top,” Esperanza senior setter Carly Bergen said.
Bergen had four aces for the Aztecs.
After a match of wide margins in each of the first four sets, the fifth set was full of enough drama for both sides.
El Dorado (3-4, 0-1) jumped to a 4-1 lead, but Esperanza rallied for a 7-6 lead on a kill from Nguyen. Later, the Aztecs went up 12-8 and served for match point at 14-11.
The Golden Hawks took advantage of three consecutive Aztec errors to tie the set at 14-14.
Esperanza regrouped to close out the match.
“We needed a find a way to win and stop beating ourselves,” Esperanza coach Isaac Owens said. “In our three losses this year, it has been about us, more than anybody else. We have a tendency to find a way to mess it up.
“We have to have more fire in our belly, and I think we found some tonight and that was nice.”
Kelly Claes led El Dorado with 22 kills.
Also in the Century League:
Foothill 3, El Modena 0: Ariana Izadmanesh had five aces and five kills to lead the host Knights to the 25-13, 25-23, 25-23 victory.
