Spartans' sweep of Orosi seals ESL championship

Strathmore sophomore Nayeli Colunga’s final kill of Thursday night’s match against Orosi marked a 3-0 sweep over the Cardinals, setting off a raucous celebration in the Spartans’ gym.

It wasn’t so much the achievement of beating a rather mediocre Orosi squad that had members of the Spartans crying as it was the relief of a program’s decade and a half without an ESL title.

“This is a big thing for them,” said Strathmore coach Julie Chapman. “Most of these girls have not experienced that.”

Colunga and perhaps several carryovers from the Strathmore girls’ soccer team that easily wrapped up the ESL last winter have had a taste, but the majority — including co-captain Denise Cabral — threw on the Spartans championship T-shirts for the first time.

“I was so excited, I started crying,” Cabral said afterward. “I really wanted to win bad because I didn’t wanna be league champs with Woodlake.”

Strathmore needed one more win to clinch the title outright from Woodlake, who had beaten the Spartans two days earlier and stood one game behind in the standings. Chapman said her team was focused too much on committing mistakes and played too uptight in that loss.

“I spoke to the girls and told them we worry too much about our errors and we need to go out there and have fun and not get so tense,” said Chapman, who has helped turn the program from a four-win squad into a 27-6 ESL power in just her second year.

“I have some really talented, hard-working kids,” she added. “I’ve had a lot of support and I think the girls will do whatever someone asks them. I asked more of them than maybe they have in the past and I’ve been really fortunate to be their coach.”

In her last season game, Cabral fittingly played a crucial role dismantling the Cardinals through her play of strong serving and timely kills. The senior finished with nine kills, four aces, three digs and served for nine straight points in building a 24-7 lead in the third game.

“That was her best game by far,” Chapman said of Cabral. Chapman said her girls had to shake off some emotional jitters in the opening game, when Orosi took its last lead at 12-11 off a score by Elda Martinez. But the Spartans used an 8-2 run that ended with one of Amelia Medrano’s eight kills en route to a 25-19 win.

“We had a little rocky start, but once they got into rhythm I got to sit back and watch the game and not be worried,” Chapman said. “I didn’t even have to call timeout; they were communicating and playing well.”

Aided by a variety of Orosi errors including two-hand and line violations, Strathmore built a quick 10-2 lead in the second game. Colunga notched three straight of her game-high 15 kills on just 24 attempts to push the lead to 19-9. Mayra Fernandez’s long hit fell inside near the end as the Spartans held the Cardinals to single digits, 25-9.

Setters Hailey Tsuboi (14 assists) and Lizbeth Galvan (eight assists) kept the momentum going in the third as they set up Maribel Bravo, Colunga and Medrano for alternating shots.

Again, the Cardinals were hit with errors and a late block by Bravo helped finish them off, 25-8, and continue the storybook season into the Division IV playoffs, set to begin next week when seedings are determined Saturday.

“We had a really good season but it feels like we’re barely getting started,” Cabral said. “Our goal was to get league but now we want Valley.”