Hilmar volleyball’s redemption tour rolled on Thursday night inside Strom Gymnasium, as they took down another section champion, the Central Section’s Division 3 victor Bullard of Fresno, in four sets in the second round of the 2024 California Interscholastic Federation Division 4 State Volleyball Championships.
The 25-27, 25-20, 25-20, 26-24 win over the No. 7 Knights came nine days after the No. 2 Yellowjackets were eliminated from the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 playoffs and two days after eliminating Northern Section Division 4 winners, No. 15 University Prep of Redding, in the state tournament opener.
Thursday’s clash was a back-and-forth affair, with the two teams tallying up 17 lead changes.
“Another team who won their section, they beat the three, two and one seeds, all in five sets to win it, so I knew they were strong,” Hilmar head coach Patti Harris said of Bullard. “But we, too, are the same. We’re pretty scrappy ourselves.”
The usually joyous and animated Hilmar roster was visibly deflated after losing the opening set, despite holding 24-23 and 25-24 leads in the final moments. But after a pep talk from Harris and her staff, they came out of the gates for the second set firing, taking an early 7-3 lead powered by back-to-back aces from junior Emma Gomes. She added a pair of kills in the set to help knot the game heading into the third frame.
In the third, a kill from junior Lia Salvador gave the ‘Jackets a 5-4 lead, and they never looked back, refusing to let the Knights even come within a tie. Gomes contributed with another two aces in the set.
“I think this was the first game that I've gotten that many aces,” Gomes said of her seven total serving scores.
“She's lying. She's gotten a lot this year,” interrupted senior hitter Finley Rosa.
“But not in a row, consecutively,” Gomes lightheartedly contested. “It’s all about practicing, especially those short serves.”
Bullard came back strong in the fourth, desperate to extend the game to a decisive fifth set. They scored four straight points to open the frame before their momentum was halted by another Gomes kill. The hitting duo of Rosa and junior Alyssa Colston then combined for seven kills to eventually force a 23- 23 tie.
Bullard proceeded to immediately take command of the match by going up 24-23. Then, Rosa took over, soaring high above her teammates, receiving a handful of assists from junior setter Stella Pires and firing powerful shots towards the opposing defenders for three consecutive kills to end the set, the match and Bullard’s season.
“We just really had that grasp on the game and had more of that fight towards the end,” Rosa said. “And my setter did such a great job.”
Pires led all players with 43 assists. Meantime, Rosa, as she has been doing for most games this season, led the team in kills with 18 kills to go along with three aces of her own. Colston was second in kills with 12, while sophomore Emily Barroso pitched in 11.
Next up on Hilmar’s hit list is yet another section champion, also coming from the Central Section, in the Division 4 champion Fresno Christian. The match will take place once again in the confines of Strom Gym at 6 p.m. today.
The No. 3 Eagles will come into today’s North Regional semifinal with a 39-13 overall record. The Yellowjackets would improve to 29-9 if they were to knock off the Eagles and advance to the regionals finals, which would take place on Tuesday at a venue yet to be determined.
