Aragon volleyball takes down Sequoia in 4

And while the Dons came away with a four-set victory — 25-17, 25-16, 22-25, 25-17 — it was far from easy.

In the end, however, Aragon simply had too much firepower all over the court to be denied.

“We have a good nucleus returning from last years,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “There were a lot of seniors on the floor.”

Aragon (2-0 PAL Bay, 6-3 overall) had four players with eight kills or more. Leading the way was senior outside hitter Isabella Bartlewski, who finished with 11 kills. Right on her heels was senior Jordan Lee, who showed her versatility by earning kills on both the left and right side, finishing with 10.

“Jordan will hit anywhere,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “Left side, right side, middle, back row.”

Sophomore Sophie Rubinstein added nine kills and senior Grace Nai added eight.

Sequoia (0-2, 3-4), meanwhile, struggled to get into a rhythm, which head coach Katie Wilcox partially attributed to Aragon’s strong serving game. While the Dons ended up with nine service aces, their heavy serves had the Ravens scrambling from the get-go.

“Aragon had tough serving,” Wilcox said. “They didn’t want us to set our middle.”

Adding to Sequoia’s woes was Aragon’s strong blocking game, especially in the first set, which seemed to get into the Ravens’ collective heads.

It showed on the scoreboard as well, the Dons put the Ravens in such big deficits early, Sequoia could never quite get over the hump.

Aragon won 11 of the first 15 points of the match before Sequoia seemed to settle down. In a format that would play out throughout the match, the Ravens rallied, closing to 13-9 before Aragon spurted ahead.

A putaway from Bartlewski keyed a 4-0 run that saw the Dons extend their lead to 17-9. They were up 23-14 when Sequoia put together one last gasp to get back in the game. A pair of Aragon errors, coupled with an ace from #14 and the Ravens were within shouting distance, down 23-17.

But a Sequoia net violation gave the Dons game point and Rubinstein ended things with a kill and a 25-17 victory.

Sequoia came out strong to start Game 2 as Alexandra Caldwell started to heat up. Doing a little bit of everything for the Ravens, Caldwell served a couple of aces as the Ravens jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead.

The Dons responded by winning nine of the next 12 points to take the lead before Sequoia closed to 11-10.

From there, however, Aragon pulled away again. Jessica Castroviejo and Rubinstein had back-to-back kills, Hunter Kwan had an ace, Rubinstein had thundering kill off the left side and Jessica Castroviejo added a roof kill off a loose Sequoia pass and the Dons had a 16-10 advantage.

They rode that lead to the Game 2 victory, 25-16.

Sequoia looked finished to start Game 3, as Aragon jumped out to a 6-1 lead. But the Ravens finally found some offense in Sofie Olson, who started to connect off the left pin.

As Olson started to dial in her attack, it raised the play of the rest of the Ravens and they slowly got back into the game.

Trailing 16-11, the Ravens got back-to-back kills from Olson and Blessing Taimani. An ace from Michelle Mendez cut the Ravens’ deficit to 19-18 before Caldwell took over.

Back-to-back kills from Caldwell tied the game at 20-all. Gianna Federighi added a kill before two more finishes from Olson gave Sequoia a 23-20 lead.

An ace from Taimani gave the Ravens a boost and the Game 3 victory, 25-23.

“[Caldwell] is good,” Gennaro-Trimble said. “[We] lost focus (in Game 3). All the energy on the floor was Sequoia.”

Caldwell had nine kills and six aces, to go along with team-leading setting. Olson finished with a match-high 14 kills.

The Dons regained their composure to start Game 4, as they jumped out to an 14-4 lead.

Sequoia, however, had one last surge in it. Two straight kills from Olson jump-started a run that saw the Ravens win 10 of the next 12 points as they closed to 16-14.

That would be as close as they would get, however, as the Dons won nine of the last 12 points to secure the victory.

“It was tough,” Wilcox said.