San Benito's Shayna Nakata digs the ball in front of teammate Sara Yamasaki during the last regular season game against Notre Dame Thursday night at home. The Spirits won in three games.
Despite holding Senior Night celebrations on Thursday, the San Benito girls volleyball team wanted to crash a different party.
With Notre Dame knotted atop the Tri-County Athletic League standings with Salinas for first place, and the Lady 'Balers welcoming the Spirits to Mattson Gym in Hollister in the final match of the regular season, it seemed like prime conditions for an upset to happen.
"I would have loved to have played spoiler, but they were good," San Benito coach Dean Askanas said. "Their defense was excellent and their offense was better than our offense."
Although Salinas' match with Alisal Thursday was not reported at press time, Notre Dame managed to live up to their end Thursday when they swept the Lady 'Balers in three games (25-21, 25-14, 25-11).
With a Salinas win, though, the two teams would share the TCAL title.
San Benito, which stole a game against Notre Dame in their previous match on Oct. 14, started strong in Game 1 Thursday, although suffered slow starts in both games two and three.
Notre Dame took Game 1, 25-21, then built leads of 8-1 in Game 2 and 9-2 in Game 3 to cruise to easy victories.
"We played well that game. We made a nice effort," Askanas said of Game 1. "In the other games our starts were too slow. We let them get off a lot of points."
Libero Sara Yamasaki had 26 digs to lead the Lady 'Balers, and Shayna Nakata provided 18.
Nakata was one of six seniors on the night, including Justine Hunter, Megan Halstead, Chelsea Freitas, Warda Alam and Courtney Scarlett, each of whom played perhaps their final match at Mattson.
Able to reflect on an entire 34-match season, though, and Askanas feels his team is where they should be.
"I think we're playing to our potential," Askanas said. "The kids are playing hard, but there's a lot of holes in the dam.
"They're playing to their ability. They're not underachieving out there, but when you play a game against a team like Notre Dame, who's good at offense and defense, it's too much."
San Benito (7-5 TCAL, 13-21) should see many Notre Dame-like teams at next week's Central Coast Section playoffs, where Askanas believes his Lady 'Balers could earn the No. 4 seed.
A first-round win in CCS would likely pit them against either Homestead or TCAL rival Salinas in the second round, depending upon which team garners the top seed.
Andrew Matheson Andrew Matheson is a sports writer for South Valley Newspapers. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 334 or at amatheson@svnewspapers.com.
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