The two local defending league champions faced off on the volleyball court on Tuesday night, as the Eureka girls made the short trip to play St. Bernard’s and won in straight sets.
The Loggers won 25-13, 25-13, 25-13, positing a third straight win over an H-DNL team and improving to 5-2.
And according to head coach Stephanie Napoleon, several players contributed.
“It was a well rounded team effort,” Napoleon said. “Everyone contributed and they kept the energy up.”
The matchup was the third of the early season against a Pacific League team (formerly the Big 5) for the Crusaders, who are 1-2 in those games.
“We had a difficult time maintaining rallies and finding consistency from the service line, while Eureka did a great job of keeping the ball alive and putting pressure on us with strong front-row hitters,” St. Bernard’s head coach Sejay Sarti said.
Alena Battle and Tiarah Maualuga led the way for the visitors.
Battle, who has been impressing early in the new season, finished with eight kills and a block, while Maualuga had nine kills.
Ezralyne Antonio also impressed in the win and added five kills, while Ramona Dusel dished out a team-best 14 assists and also had four kills and an ace, and Violla Kingsang had 10 assists, six digs and two aces.
Eddy Hale added seven digs and an ace for Eureka, Zuma Kan had five aces and four digs, Makenzie Wolf had four kills and Jade Willoughby had two blocks and a kill.
Makaylah Tinkham had a good game for the Redwood League champs (formerly Little 4), and stepped up in the second set with some big blocks at the net, while teammate Sailor Storer had a good run of serves, scoring four consecutive points in the third set.
“While we struggled to find our rhythm there were some bright moments to build on,” Sarti said.
Playing some of the larger local schools early in the campaign should benefit the Crusaders when they around to league play.
“We’re still working through some things and finding our rhythm, but I’m very hopeful about what this team can accomplish as the season progresses,” Sarti added. “We’ll continue to learn from each match and keep working to get better.”
