Volleyball roundup: El Capitan sets the tone with sweep in CCC opener against Buhach Colony.
The El Capitan High boys volleyball team started their bid for a second consecutive Central California Conference championship with a 3-0 sweep of Buhach Colony on Tuesday night in the Thunder Dome. The Gauchos earned the win 25-15, 25-19, 25-20 to improve to 13-2 overall on the season.
The Gauchos return four players in Richard Her, Touzer Herr, Kory Moua and Tyler McCreary from last year’s team, which finished a perfect 10-0 in CCC play. “We definitely count on their experience to help lead by example for what and who we are as a program,” said El Capitan coach Karen Petersen.
McCreary paced the Gauchos with 12 kills and three aces against the Thunder (6-3 overall). Tristan Xiong and Kory Mousa led the defense with 10 digs each and Adam Cinco orchestrated the offense on his way to racking up 26 assists.
Petersen says the Gauchos are a tight-knit group. “Our program is all about ‘O'hana’ (family),” Petersen said. “We play for each other and our boys have bought into this program with ‘we lose as a team, we win as a team.’ Each one of our boys has a role to play on this team, as a starter, a sub, serving specialist and the bench. It's not easy but if it was easy everyone would be doing it. We tell them, ‘that no matter the level of the athlete, there is always room for improvement.’”
Buhach Colony was led by Angadveer Virk’s 11 kills and Kace Vang’s 12 assists.
Petersen says she hopes the Gauchos can work their way to another conference championship in her final season as the boys volleyball coach. “Our boys have determination,” she said. “This is my last season as head coach for boys volleyball, so I pray that our coaching staff have and will continue to prepare them for another CCC title.”
Golden Valley 3, Los Banos 0 – The Cougars opened CCC play with a 25-11, 25-14, 25-11 victory over the Tigers to improve to 9-6 overall. Jake Green recorded 10 kills and three aces fro GV and Richard Saechao also finished with 10 kills. Marc her collected 18 assists for the Cougars.
Merced 3, Atwater 0 – The Bears improved to 5-4 overall with a 25-21, 26-24, 25-20 sweep of the Falcons (7-10). Senior Connor Sweet led Atwater with nine kills and Santiago Renteria finished with 19 digs.
Livingston 3, Pacheco 0 – Gurvir Singh paced the Wolves with 11 kills and two blocks in a 25-7, 25-11, 25-12 victory over the Panthers. Livingston improved to 16-5 overall and 3-0 in the Western Athletic Conference with the victory. Bradley Kaji added nine kills and Shabadjot Kaloya dished out 17 assists for the Wolves.
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.