Gauchos record first VVAL volleyball win

The Gauchos relaxed a bit after dominating the first two sets, but had enough in the tank to hold off the charging Dragons down the stretch.|

Casa Grande held on in the fifth and final set to upset Sonoma Valley 3-2 on Thursday for its first Vine Valley Athletic League volleyball win of the season. The Gauchos relaxed a bit after dominating the first two sets, but had enough in the tank to hold off the charging Dragons down the stretch.

It has been a disappointing season for Casa Grande, but the Gauchos were more than ready to answer the bell in this one as they cruised 25-21 and 25-20 to take command of the match.

Outside hitters Miette Marshall and Marissa Brody were on target from the opening serve between the two teams as they peppered the back corner of the Dragon defense with solid shots that could not be returned.

Casa Grande raced to a 16-14 lead and improved the margin to 22-18 with both Marshall and Brody hitting winners on terrific passes by Federica Ciprandi. A foreign exchange student, Ciprandi made very few mistakes from either side of the floor as she put enough air under her high-floating assists to allow the Gaucho hitters to pick their spots with sharp shots.

Casa Grande took the lead for good on a left-hand smash by Brody that made the score 17-16 in the first set, and they never looked back.

The passing game for the Gauchos was never better with Ciprandi and libero Maya Bjostad spoon feeding Gaucho teammates who got into hitting position against the surprised Dragons. Casa Grande owned the center of the net with Sarah Thornton and Jaime McGaughey hitting winners to the back of the defense that the Dragons struggled to put back in play.

All along in the early going, the Gauchos had to avoid the slants of rangy Lola Martin on the other side of the net. The Dragon came into the contest with the third leading total of kills in the VVAL, but was neutralized on several occasions by the leaping Thornton.

The 2-0 lead by the Gauchos after two sets gave evidence that they were in it to win it after suffering a 3-0 loss at the hands of the Dragons in Sonoma earlier.

Thornton, the vocal leader of the Gauchos, left no doubt that Casa Grande was completely focused to make a run at victory for the first time this season.

With the surprising lead, Gaucho coach Jen Sutton emptied her bench in the third set, and gave all the Casa players valuable playing time. It did, however, change the momentum of the contest as Sonoma rushed to 25-13 and 25-14 wins in the next two sets to make things a bit uneasy for the Gaucho followers in the Coach Ed Iacopi Gym.

The final short set was a thriller as Casa Grande had to battle back from a 3-0 negative start. A couple of winners by the very determined Marshall helped to put her team on the right track after good passes from Ciprandi and Maya Bjostad.

Thornton had the big hit of the determining set with a hard-hit winner which bounced only inches from the back line.

Martin kept her club in the hunt with eight kills overall, but was neutralized for the most part by Thornton and McGaughey. They made very few passing mistakes, and their emotion never wavered.

Next on the Gaucho menu will be cross-town rival Petaluma on Tuesday.

Casa made it a clean sweep by outlasting Sonoma 2-1 in the preliminary junior varsity game.

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