Abagail Gossi had a huge night at the service line on Tuesday, as the Ferndale Wildcats took a big step in the race for this year’s league championship.
The Cats hosted St. Bernard’s in a showdown between the two league leaders and prevailed in four sets, winning 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, with the minimum two points separating the two teams in three of the four sets.
Also in Redwood League action on Tuesday, the Hoopa Warriors moved into a tie for second with a four-sets win at South Fork.
The Warriors won 25-15, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16.
At Ferndale, the Wildcats held their Pink Out night for breast cancer awareness and beat their biggest rivals for this year’s championship, moving one win clear in the standings with four games remaining each.
“This was a great triumph for our team and our hopes to win league,” Ferndale head coach SK Montiel Clark said. “We had a lot of excellency last night.”
No one more so than Gossi at middle blocker.
The sophomore team captain recorded 17 aces.
“Her serve was unstoppable,” the coach said. “Our middles, Abby and Ki (Giacomini) absolutely ran the show offensively with the help from our senior setter Dalia (Cantu-Mendez).”
Cantu-Mendez, according to the coach, “did an awesome job running our offense with her calm and focused perseverance.”
With the win, the Cats improved to 4-1 in league play, while St. Bernard’s dropped to 3-2 and into a tie for second with Hoopa.
St. Bernard’s head coach Sejay Cyphers also described Gossi’s play as unstoppable.
“My girls struggled to receive her serve, and our own service errors ultimately cost us close loses,” Cyphers said.
Despite the loss, there were some bright spots for the Crusaders, who remain well in the chase for the league title.
Aryanna Osborne showed a lot of hustle chasing down every dig for the visitors, while Scarlett Zerlang “continued to throw down at the net,” according to the coach, and led the Crusaders in kills.
The night, however, belongs to the Wildcats.
“Overall, I am ecstatic in the leadership and level of play I am seeing from this team,” the Ferndale coach said. “We have a lot of depth this year.”
The two schools will face off a third time in league play on Thursday of next week.
Next up, on Thursday, Ferndale travels to play Hoopa and St. Bernard’s travels to South Fork.
The Hoopa girls, meanwhile, also remain well in the hunt after their four-sets win at South Fork.
And they won with a balanced team performance.
Violet King continues to set a high standard for the Warriors and finished with a team-high eight kills and 10 digs, while the always dangerous Karmen Whitecrane added seven kills and a co-team-best five aces.
Luella Cosce also had five aces and a team-high 18 digs, while Vuunsip E-Kor and Kimi Wagenfuhr each also had 10 digs and BellaAnn King dished out a team-high 31 assists.
Naress Crawford added four aces and Chloe King had five kills.
