Aragon volleyball moves into tie for first place in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division with Burlingame

“Obviously, a very close match,” said Aragon head coach Nettie Gennaro-Trimble. “Burlingame is an awesome team.”

But the Dons showed their is something special about themselves as well, as they rallied from a two-set deficit to beat Burlingame, 25-27, 18-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-12.

The first set was played at an unbelievable level, with the teams battling back and forth. Burlingame (8-2 PAL Bay, 18-5 overall) took a quick 3-0 lead and pushed it to 8-4, before Aragon (8-2, 17-9) got back in the game.

The Dons won four straight points to tie it at 8-all and it remained nip-and-tuck the rest of the way. From that point on, there were six ties and seven lead changes as the teams needed extra points to determine a winner, with Burlingame taking Game 1, 27-25.

The Panthers carried that momentum into Game 2, while the Dons appeared dazed after the tough Game 1 loss. With the game tied at 6, Burlingame went on a 4-0 run to take control of the match.

The Dons did not have a defensive answer for Burlingame’s Ella Duong, especially when she was lined up on the left side. With her thunderous right hand, she blasted the Dons into submission, finishing with five kills in the set as the Panthers went on to win a not-as-close-as-the-final-score-indicated 25-18 victory.

“We just didn’t match up well,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “We had to bring energy to the court. We had the energy in the games that we won.”

That energy started to finally warm in the third set as Aragon’s Jessica Castroviejo and Isabella Bartlewski started to heat up. Castroviejo’s play in the middle was especially important.

“Their middles were hitting really well,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “It was important (to get others involved offensively). We needed more than one hitter against Burlingame.”

Bartlewski started to come around in Game 2 and Castroviejo joined her in Game 3, connecting on six of her 12 kills in the Game 3.

In fact, Aragon picked things up all around — offensively and defensively. They started digging up Duong and Maddie Langlinais, who was equally effective on the left side.

The Dons won the first three points of the set and never trailed the rest of the way. They eventually pushed out to a 10-5 advantage. When Bartlewski, who finished with 11 kills, ended a point with a kill, the Dons led 19-15.

But Burlingame won five of the next seven points, closing to 21-20.

But the Panthers would get no closer. Jordan Lee, who finished with a team-high 13 kills to go along with 23 assists, started a 4-0 run to end the game, with a Burlingame hitting error giving the Dons’ their first set win.

With the momentum on their side, the Dons kept up their strong play in Game 4. The Panthers won the first two points of the game before Aragon won nine of the next 12 points to take a 9-5 lead.

Three straight Aragon errors, however, enabled Burlingame to close to 11-9, but the Panthers could never quite get over the hump. When Langlinais terminated a long rally, Burlingame was down 19-15.

The Dons closed strong, however, winning six of the next seven points for a 25-16 win to tie the match and force the deciding Game 5, which is a race to 15.

Aragon led 4-3 early in the ultimate game, but kills from Grace Nai, who finished with 10 kills, and Sophie Rubinstein gave the Dons a little breathing room, 6-3.

Back-to-back kills from Rubinstein, who had 11 to give the Dons five hitters in double figures, pushed Aragon’s lead to 9-4.

But an Aragon service error followed by a pair of Duong service aces closed Burlingame’s deficit to 10-8. A quick kill from Lee put the Dons up 13-10 and Bartlewski ended things with a kills for the 15-12 deciding game.

Aragon won’t have long to celebrate the win, however. The Dons face perennial power Menlo-Atherton Thursday, followed by matches against Half Moon Bay and Hillsdale next week before closing with Carlmont.

“There are no easy games in the PAL this year,” Gennaro-Trimble said.