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Witous wills Sonoma spikers stirring rally past Casa in SCL clash

Outplayed in all facets of their key Sonoma County League match last Thursday night in Pfeiffer Gym, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity volleyball girls found themselves trailing longtime foe Casa Grande two sets to none and sitting on the brink of a stinging, one-sided loss.

But three-time all-league senior setter Jersey Witous wasn’t going to let the visiting Lady Gauchos dominate the action on Sonoma’s home court and leave town with an easy victory.

With her inspiring all-around play, Witous provided both the will and the way to overcome the daunting deficit and her Lady Dragon teammates followed her lead.

After dropping the first two sets 17-25 and 19-25 to the tall and intimidating Casa front-line, Witous opened the third set with a pair of serving aces, then preceded to set, dig, block, spike and do anything possible for the Lady Dragons, who went on to win both the third and fourth sets by the same 25-16 score.

Then in the fifth and deciding 15-point set, Witous served up seven-straight points, two more off aces, to build up an 8-1 advantage, and then she slammed home a kill to finish off Sonoma’s stirring comeback with a 15-10 set-win and an impressive SCL match victory.

Stepping up their play down the stretch to support Witous’ lead toward Sonoma’s team triumph were seniors Karly Burningham and Gabby Petersen, and freshman standouts Mackenzie Albrecht and Delaney Swanson.

Sonoma was led by Witous’ 25 assists, 20 digs, 14 service points, including four aces, 12 kills and one block; Albrecht’s 23 digs, seven kills and a block; libero Burningham’s 20 digs and four service points, including an ace; senior Alissa Thomas’ 14 digs and 10 service points; Petersen’s nine kills, six digs, six service points and an assisted block; Swanson’s eight kills; senior Karisa Hess’ three kills; junior Allyson Beckwith’s five service points and a block; junior Taryn Mak’s four service points and an assisted block.

The Lady Dragon spikers hit the SCL road tonight for a showdown with longtime rival Petaluma.