Spartans open tourney with Grizzly sweep

The first game of the 2009 Strathmore Volleyball Tournament meant a little more to Spartans coach Julie Chapman.

The second-year coach’s team was on the verge of a pool-play upset when Granite Hills (6-3-1) began to rally near the end of the second game, scoring five of seven points to cut Strathmore’s lead to one.

She called a timeout, steadied her team and watched as star scorer Ameilia Medrano saved the win, scoring three of the final four points to close out the Grizzlies, 2-0, Tuesday.

Division V Strathmore (5-0) topped Division III Granite 25-16 and 25-23 in the first game of the Strathmore Tourney.

Chapman said part of the motivation for her players’ striving to preserve the victory was for her.

“I think they know that I used to teach at Granite Hills and it means a lot to me to show Granite that I can come over here, take a small school and bring them up to that kind of competition level,” Chapman said.

“They played about 100 percent better today than they have played yet. They were really focused. Nothing hit the ground. (Beating) a school four times bigger than us, I’m really happy.”

The Spartans’ work from behind the serving line was the key cog in their upset.

Senior Amelia Medrano took over game one from behind the white line, peppering the Grizzlies with three straight aces to finish them off. In game two, Medrano notched an ace to put Strathmore up 24-22, setting the table for Colunga’s kill which barely scratched the left line for the win.

“Serving is always the most important element because you’re giving away an easy point to the other team any time you miss a serve,” Chapman said. “We only missed one serve in two games. They weren’t real strong serves, but they were in and they were forcing the opponent to serve receive, which is everybody’s weakness.”

Medrano pounded two kills in the Spartans’ 8-2 start to the match, but the Grizzlies rallied to tie it at 12 following kills by Vanessa Alcantar and Emily Fechner. But sophomore Hailey Tsuboi dropped in two aces, giving her team a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

In the second game, Granite scored the first two points but watched as Strathmore reeled off 11 of the next 12. Many potential Grizzly points were thwarted with diving saves by Denise Cabral and Tsuboi.

Chapman wasn’t surprised at her team’s willingness to get on the ground, as that’s its primary focus.

“We work a lot on defense and discipline,” she said. “We realize we’re not the tallest team, so we have to make up for that with our defense. Denise played exceptionally well. Our goal is no balls hit the ground on our side. We may make offensive errors like hitting out, which is something we’ve gotta work on, but we really work hard not to make defensive errors.”

Granite would mount a comeback behind well-placed kills by Natalie Congdon and Jennifer Landers, pulling within one late, but their achilles heel of service receptions returned at the wrong time.

“That was a horrible game,” Granite coach Bri Yorba said. “I just don’t think we were ready to play. Hands down, Strathmore outplayed us. They moved the ball well and outplayed us on offense and defense.”

The Spartans defeated Kings Christian 2-0 (25-19, 25-16) and Riverdale 2-0 (25-16, 25-15) to go 3-0 on day one, putting them at the top of their pool. Granite split with Riverdale (25-17, 21-25) in its second match, though it counts as a win on the schedule due to the margin of victory tiebreaker.

Lindsay, playing across the street at Harmony Middle School, won a thriller over Laton, 2-0 (28-26, 26-24), split with Farmersville (25-16, 22-25) and dropped two games to McFarland in the nightcap (25-23, 25-12).

Strathmore and Lindsay square off at 3 p.m., today, at Strathmore High while Granite tangles with Farmersville at 3 p.m. at Harmony.