Burlingame Panthers road warriors no more

“A lot of nerves,” Karkazis said. “We practice in this gym a lot, but we practice [east to west, not north to south]. It’s definitely a new feel for the gym, but it’s going to have a lot more wins.”

Karkazis’ historic first varsity kill in the new gym — set in motion by a textbook dig from senior libero Sam Hollrah with sophomore setter Elaina Newman floating a pass off the right pin — sparked the Panthers’ landslide 25-12, 25-16, 25-14 sweep over visiting Sequoia.

“It was a nice clean swing, no block,” Karkazis said. “It was good. ... It felt pretty great.”

The win marked the first career home game for third-year head coach Hannah Korslund. For the past two-plus years, Korslund’s routine has been to load up her Honda CRV and drive to an away-game venue. Tuesday, however, after teaching her fifth period AP physics class, Korslund collected her volleyball bag and took a 30-second walk across the road to start setting up for the JV/varsity doubleheader.

“I haven’t coached in front of a home crowd ever as a varsity coach,” Korslund said. “So, that was a lot of fun to coach in front of a home crowd.”

The new athletic facility occupies the same land as the previous structure, but the new volleyball court is in a different space than in the old gym. With the main entrance now at the south side of the facility, there is a small atrium leading directly to the gym entrance. The game court now runs north to south (On practice days, Burlingame uses two east to west practice courts) and the playing area is more spacious.

“It’s beautiful,” Korslund said. “Even just the space — rallies were longer, kids could pursue balls safely, we had a girl run into the bleachers almost, they had a girl hit the back wall. I think having the space to play, it really feels like a nice volleyball facility.”

And the home-court advantage seemed to serve the Panthers well.

The last time Burlingame and Sequoia met was in the Sept. 11 Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division opener, with the Ravens winning a back-and-forth battle in five sets. To start the second half of the Bay Division slate, Burlingame never trailed through the first two sets.

“I’m not surprised because I knew that we wanted to come back really hard, because we lost in five sets last time, and it was a really hard loss,” Burlingame junior Jordan Toomey said. “But this time we came back with so much more fire and we were just ready to play.”

Toomey led the way with a match-high 17 kills, and only got stronger as the evening wore on. The junior outside hitter is playing six rotations this season for the first time in her varsity career, and is just as lethal in the back row, showing outstanding defensive chops while sharing the match high with three service aces.

Toomey and sophomore outside hitter Ilsa Carlson never gave Sequoia. Carlson added pressure by keeping up the persistent left-side attack by totaling seven kills and one block.

“Ilsa and Jordan have both been fantastic for us,” Korslund said. “Being able to rotate Jordan back row and start Ilsa front row gives us a lot of options. Ilsa is only a sophomore too, Jordan only a junior, so we’re really looking forward to them having great careers here.”

Burlingame (4-4 PAL Bay, 10-11 overall) set the tone early with some scrappy play from middle blocker Ruby Gemmer. In Game 1, the junior fended off a dump attempt by Sequoia setter Jayda McGlennon, slapping it back over where Sequoia then misfired into the net to give the Panthers a 6-3 advantage. Gemmer then put down the first of her six match kills to up it to 7-3, and Hollrah followed with some fine libero play to keep Burlingame in the driver’s seat.

Hollrah later served up two aces to push the lead to 19-10, and a late block by Carlson made it 21-11, Toomey roasted a kill off the left pin to end the opening set. Burlingame then started Game 2 on a 7-1 run, fueled by Toomey’s three aces. Senior middle Ava Scatena fortified the attack with four match kills, all in the second set. Toomey then demonstrated everything was going the Panthers’ way by scoring an inadvertent kill with an emergency bump out of the back row that sailed over the net and found the floor to force set point.

Burlingame’s defense was on point as well, holding Sequoia’s big three hitters — senior Katalina Tuipulotu and sophomores Kiera Winters and Samantha McMurtry — to 20 total kills. McMurtry paced the Ravens with eight kills.

“Usually what happens is when they neutralize one of our three ... the other two kind of goes off,” Sequoia head coach Bryant Tran said. “Today, when they neutralized Winters, I guess the other two couldn’t carry the load.”

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Ravens, who entered the day tied for second place, one game back of first place in the PAL Bay.

“We’ve been playing well,” Tran said. “Not the results that we wanted today but I know that we’re better than what we showed today. ... We’ll got back to the drawing board ... and hopefully we can turn it around. We’re looking to make a push for playoffs.”

Sequoia (5-3, 13-10) led early in Game 3, with a Tuipulotu kill pushing the lead to 7-5. But Burlingame rallied back to tie it 7-all when Toomey tooled the block off the left side, with Gemmer — who only joined the service rotation last week in a five-set loss at Menlo-Atherton —following with three straight service aces.

Burlingame rode the hot hand of Toomey from there, with senior Addie Uhrich stepping to the service line for a late ace along the way.

After a slow start in league play, Burlingame has won two straight to climb back to the .500 mark in PAL Bay Division matches.

“It was a little slow going as younger players learned what those roles were, and stepped into them,” Korslund said.

The top five teams in the PAL Bay Division standings are now separated by three games.

Entering the day, M-A and Aragon were tied for first place in the Bay, but Aragon stumbled in a 30-28, 25-7, 25-21 sweep at Carlmont. M-A (7-1 PAL Bay) now takes outright control of first place, with Carlmont (6-2) and Aragon (6-2) tied for second place, Sequoia in fourth and Burlingame fifth.

“I have no predictions,” Korslund said. “I think it’s really anyone’s league this year. What I’ve told the team is we can only control our games. ... It’s one at a time, knocking them down. As for who’s going to win it all, I have no idea. That’s why you’ve got to play the games.”