Volleyball Dragons fall to Vintage

The Sonoma Valley varsity volleyball team lost their season home finale on Tuesday night to visiting Vintage High, three sets to none. Even coach Brian Perkins had been cautious about the Dragons chances before the game, and when the starting lineup was introduced his caution became clear: missing were two out of three outside hitters, Lola Martin out with a cold and Kaden Sanders with a sprained ankle.

Along with the absence of setter Ashlynn Armitage and defensive specialist Lily Fedorchak, also out with illnesses (not COVID, Perkins assured us), the damaged Dragons could not stop the league’s second-place Crushers, who won in straight sets 28-30, 21-25, 21-25.

Following the pre-game ceremony honoring seniors Chelsea Young Magana, Audrey Powers, Yuli Lopez, Nelli Jimenez, Ella Perkins and Campbell Rolston, the varsity took to court with enthusiasm and high hopes. As a result the first set was a nail-biter, as the home team repeatedly tied the score against the visitors, sometimes even pulling ahead as they exchanged kills, dinks and lengthy volleys to work the score well past the usual 25-point number, finally ending after a dramatic extended quarter with a 30-28 win for Vintage.

The reduced roster led Perkins to call up sophomore outside hitter Annabel Sebastiani from the JV team to fill in. “She played well but we were missing too much firepower,” said Perkins. Freshman Olivia Patton also delivered a strong game, as did junior Kathryn Juhasz.

“It was definitely a tough loss Tuesday,” said Perkins following the game. “We had our chances to win in each set, but were lacking some offensive firepower with illnesses and injuries, and weren't able to put the ball away when we needed to.”

Still, the coaches had reason to be proud of the team. “It was our best serving performance of the season, 97.2% with 11 aces and only two errors,” said Perkins. “And our seniors stepped up on their night, serving 98% (one miss) and combining for eight aces, 10 kills, 33 of our 34 assists, and 54 of our 67 digs.”

Regardless of the outcome of the rest of the season and playoffs, next year’s team will be rich in experienced talent who played as underclassmen this year – in particular including Martin, whose absence dropped her to second in league kill totals, 161 to American Canyon’s Arriana Pacheco’s 171.

The loss gives the Dragons a 6-5 league record and third place in the VVAL, which they hoped to improve at Thursday night’s road match against winless Casa Grande (results too late for press time). The season ends next Tuesday, Oct. 19 with a match in Napa, currently 3-7 in the league and another possible pickup for the Dragons.

“We are hoping to make the Division 3 playoffs,” said Perkins. “If we do, we will find out around Oct. 23, and would play on Oct. 26.” The full playoff schedule will be on the NCS website at cifncs.org. If the Dragons are successful in the playoffs, they may return to Pfeiffer Gym the first week in November for an additional game, which will be streamed live on Facebook and Sonoma TV, said Bob Taylor of sonomatv.org.