Sierra High School’s gym was riddled with blue and green and jam-packed as the boys' volleyball team hosted the No. 8 Sac-Joaquin Section-ranked Manteca.
This crosstown rivalry matchup wasn’t just for bragging rights this go-round as both teams battled it out for the Valley Oak League championship. With the title on the line and a good chunk of the city watching, Manteca snatched the win away from the home crowd beating the Timberwolves in five sets, 3-2.
“It feels great,” said Jennifer Reis, Manteca boys’ volleyball head coach. “This is our third time winning the VOL championship in a row and some of our guys have the patches on their letterman jackets and the shirts of the championships. So we know we have a target on us because we're at the top.”
Here are the key takeaways from the Buffaloes dominating victory over the Timberwolves to lock them in as VOL champions.
‘It’s never over with Sierra’
In almost every set, Manteca jumped out to a lead. Those leads would never last long against the Timberwolves, who fought for every point to ensure every set was a dogfight. Leading them was junior Owen Altadonna who racked up a team-high 16 kills throughout the night.
Kill by kill, the 6-foot-5 middle hitter gave his team and the home crowd life, shooting the ball through any Manteca defender. After the Buffaloes took the first set 25-20, Altadonna led Sierra to a 25-17 win in the second set.
“Sierra is top notch and last time we played them we won the first two sets and lost the second two and ended up going to five sets,” Reis said. “It’s never over with Sierra but I feel like our guys just gave maximum effort the whole time. Even when things went bad, we found a way to dig ourselves out.”
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With a 2-1 lead over the Buffaloes, Sierra could practically taste the upset. Altadonna was near unstoppable with the help of senior Gurpreet Singh, who finished the night with nine kills. The Timberwolves just needed one more set of momentum-filled play to get the job done, but Manteca’s sparkplug off the bench had other ideas.
Manteca’s depth outlasts Sierra’s momentum
Senior Micah Crawford didn’t play much in the first three sets but got into the Buffaloes' rotation by the fourth and was their difference-maker. The outside hitter led his team with six kills that set doing everything he could to give his team the lead. Manteca would go on to win the fourth set 25-20 to force a fifth set.
“I was nervous a little bit,” Crawford said. “Last year, Sierra beat us here and we ended up being Co-VOL champions, and this year we wanted it solo. So we did a good job of getting that done this year.”
Crawford and the Buffaloes refused to share the title this season as they would take over the fifth set. Along with Crawford’s 10 kills, seniors Aidan Patton and Garrison Reis played offensive roles in Manteca’s comeback. Patton finished with a team-high 11 kills and eight blocks while Reis added seven kills.
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The Buffaloes won the final set 15-12 as Sierra just couldn’t come back after a slow start.
“When we start off this far behind in a fifth set it’s like okay we don’t have time to do this,” said Amy Rosendin, Sierra boys’ volleyball head coach. “We turned it around some tying it up 8-8 at one point just trying to utilize our strong rotations but we didn’t do that enough in this set.”
The Timberwolves' 3-2 loss locks them in at second place in the VOL with just a game left of the regular season against Central Catholic on April 22. Manteca will face Oakdale in its final league game of the season but before that, they face Ripon Christian on April 19.
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: 'We're at the top': Manteca boys volleyball beats Sierra to win VOL Championship
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