On Wednesday Sept. 17, the girls’ varsity volleyball team played in a highly anticipated rivalry match against the Branson Bulls. Carrying a crowd of over 500, it’s safe to say it didn’t disappoint.
The Giants came in with a record of 3-3, holding a ranking of 9th in 49ers CalHi Sports recent poll for northern California teams. The Bulls had a record of 5-1 and came in ranked 2nd in the same poll. Despite their higher ranking, junior and outside hitter Logan Leverte said the team recognized that Branson had an overall less experienced roster going into the game.
“Branson had a really strong team, but we knew that they lost a lot of their starters, and their team is a lot younger now. We used what we knew about some of the people on their team to our advantage and tried to win, which we did,” Leverte said.
From the start, it was evident that the Bulls wanted to send a message as the defending Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) champions. They came out hot, starting with an early first set lead of 17-7. Despite Branson’s population being much smaller than Redwood, their student section showed out roaring. The Giants took a quick timeout to gather themselves.
“We needed to focus more on getting a good first pass so we’re able to set up our offense and make it easier for Katie to set everyone as well,” Leverte said.
Junior Katie Lazzareschi was an integral part of the team’s win, being the setter for the Giants and playing the full game. Alongside her consistent performance, was University of California Berkeley commit Maddy Wagner.
“We both play outside, and usually the outside is the primary hitter, who the setter goes to a lot. I think she played really well, both on defense and hitting,” Leverte said.
Out of the timeout, Redwood settled in and went on a 10-3 run. While they did end up losing the set 17-25, they had successfully switched up the momentum and forced Branson to reconsider the possibility of an easy win.
The Giants came out quick for the second set and never looked back. Libero Liliana Huerta made numerous diving digs to keep the ball alive, giving Leverte and Wagner ample opportunity to make kills–whereas they didn’t in the first set– leading to a winning set of 25-9.
The Bulls weren’t willing to get pushed around in their home gym as they dominated the offensive side of the ball during the third set, almost never giving up their serves. Branson senior and Swarthmore volleyball commit Ella Tsai had numerous kills to push them to a dominant 16-26 win in the third set, and taking the game lead of 2-1.
This seesaw of a match wasn’t over just yet though. The Giants used tactical serves during the 4th set in order to disrupt Branson’s attack, and forced the Bulls’ hitters into off balanced strikes. Junior Haley Boyarski then connected on a couple kills. Redwood took advantage of their serving success and won the fourth set 25-16 sending the game to overtime.
The tie breaking set was a nail biter, with back and forth points between the Giants and Bulls. Eventually the score tallied at 14-13 in Redwood’s favor, and the game point went to senior Kiera Sisuphan who sealed the set for the Giants, winning an instant classic and sending Branson fans home disappointed.
“From our starting lineup, we lost a couple people, but from the people that were on the team last year, they really stepped up,” Leverte said.
The girls hope to carry this momentum towards their next away game against Tamalpais on the 24th.
