Girls Volleyball - PASB v. EABH: Piece of Cake

Back again, the Lady Hawks get a second victory in a row. Following warmups, the Hawks gained more confidence comparing their performance with the PASB Panthers. The first serve went to the Panthers which was immediately shut down the second it hit the net. Instantly, the Hawks began cheering and encouraging each other. The Panthers were instantly nervous. With tension in their audience and their own court, the silence was loud. Right at the beginning, the Panthers were not really in the right rhythm, throwing the ball back immediately rather than three touches to set up an offensive play. This meant a bump went straight to the Hawks’ side which was immediately met with a concrete wall: Nina Monteiro (4).  The girls were up and running, going from winning the first point on a win streak until 8-0. They nearly missed a point, but recovered pretty quickly–a moment in which Coach Laura took a step back and stared blankly at the girls. “Silly mistakes happen, but sometimes they shouldn’t,” type of face was made. But all is well, they brushed it off and still kept an insane distance between the points. It is believed that the Panthers were slightly lost with their rotation and assigned roles that every time they passed the ball back, the Hawks would go diving to reach the ball and avoiding losing points. The first point scored on the ladies was a failed block on their part, which was easily recoverable with Julia Jorge (10) spiking straight onto their court. 

Throughout the entire game, the girls would make use of every second and would give a pep-talk to each other before serving. The amount of focus and dedication was astronomical. Every decrease in performance was challenged with a stronger and more powerful spike by Brunna Gontijo (16), team captain, and Julia Jorge. The game was looking good with the Panthers stuck at four and five points. Coach Jill and Laura subbed in majority of the benched players which gave Larissa Ragonesi (18), Carol Bonato (20), and Ana Vitoria Zica (7) the chance to show off all their skills. With perfect passes, assists, and spikes, the three gave incredible pride to all the Hawks. Surprisingly, the Panthers fumbling around brought them an unexpected point. Through passing the ball to the other side as an unordinary spike, the Hawks were left confused and let it fall straight to the floor. However, the rest was history. Larissa passed the ball to Manuela Ferolla (19), the youngest starting player, who created the perfect pass for Julia Jorge to spike. The force was so strong it instantly rolled off the panthers. The first set ended with a score of 21-5 after the Panthers gave the match point away with a hand gripping the net. This set was filled with aces, careful general calls of balls in or out of the court, and bodies flying above the net.

In the second set, the coaches decided it was an easy victory so they started with the reserve team. Clara Ribeiro (8), Ana Zica, Larissa, and Bianca Birman (11) subbed in. And they did not disappoint. The team went ham and scored a winning streak of three points. unfortunately, the Panthers nearly caught up with 2-3. The reserve and starting players went ahead and opened the gap despite a tie at 5-5. Brunna immediately caught the ball that was passed right into her hands and spiked from the back row and scored a point: a demonstration of their will and power. At this point, there was no tension. Just pure adrenaline and excitement. The Panthers were fumbling around watching the Lady Hawks’ adrenaline go up and theirs go down. They touched the ball three times with the same girl which marked the beginning of a paralyzation at six points. As the girls climbed up, the Panthers stayed still. This was demonstrated once again by the difference in jump height. As the Hawks began soaring above the net, the Panthers were chained to the floor. Every point given to the Panthers was through minor mistakes which were quickly brushed off since the point difference was huge. They managed to climb to 19-14 which was nowhere near scary since the Hawks were two points away from victory. What the Hawks noticed was that the Panthers could only reach and react fast enough to moves made in the back. The immediate solution to ensuring that all points were scored on them was spiking straight down rather than holes in the back. After several underhand serves and missed points by the Panthers, the EABH coaches decided to sub in the starting players to end on an outstanding note. Ana Zica made countless beautiful spikes, Julia Jorge and Summer Lusear as well. Right at a match point, there was a minor slip up, but in the end, Ana Zica finished the game off with a spike. 

All was good between the two teams, so much so, they hosted a third set as a friendly match. What an incredibly well rounded team. The girls are now officially qualified for semi-finals! Keep cheering the girls through the livestreams and articles on our website.