Sequoia thrills crowd with five-set win in school’s first-ever Nor Cal volleyball match

The Game 5 finale did not come easy for the “Purple Reign” Ravens, though, as there were two big lead changes late in the decisive set. So, when Sequoia saw a 10-7 lead slip away on a 4-0 Bullard run, head coach Bryant Tran took a timeout to calm his players.

“We’ve been in this position before,” Tran said. “We’ve had five-set matches all season long. We’ve been battle tested. I just told them: ‘Hey, we’ve got to keep it simple; get our serves in; be aggressive, but let us play.’ I was confident we can beat them in the rally.”

The message was well received, as Sequoia didn’t allow another point, closing the match on a 5-0 run.

With senior libero Joslin Fiel at the service line, the Ravens closed it out on a tremendous second effort by junior opposite hitter Maya Matossian, who got up to block a Bullard attack by rejecting an all-out swing by senior Jayden Jackson, only to have Bullard pick up the block and reset Jackson. Matossian stayed on her mark, though, and got a hand on the second attack to keep the ball in play.

“We practice all the time getting off, getting on,” Matossian said. “And I think everyone knows their place and what to do, and I think everyone being where they are is the key to me being able to be there.”

The Ravens reloaded, with junior Jayda McGlennon setting an attack to Matossian off the right side. The junior didn’t miss, angling her shot from a few feet back of the net to spike down the game-winning kill, as the home crowd, featuring a packed student section in the southwest section of the bleachers, went nuts.

“We’ve never had a student section like that,” Sequoia sophomore Kiera Winters said. “So, it was really amazing having them back us up. The energy was just really crazy.”

It wasn’t until the second set the Ravens got their home crowd into it. Bullard (30-10) led wire-to-wire in Game 1, exploiting a confused Sequoia defense by roasting marshmallows in the campfire left vacant by the scattered Ravens.

“This was our first appearance for the school in history in state,” Tran said. “So, I think the kids, they hear those kinds of things, and the pressure builds. It was first-set jitters.”

Winters, though, righted the ship in Game 2, stepping to the service line with a slight 6-5 lead to spark an 8-0 Sequoia run.

“That’s not the first time she’s carried us to save our ass with her serves,” Tran said. “She has a killer serve, and when her serves are going, her offense goes with it in the front row, too.”

During the run, Winters fired three straight service aces. She finished the night with seven aces and 18 kills.

“Definitely in the beginning of the second set,” Winters said of when she found her groove. “I was like: ‘No way did we just drop that one! I really want to come back!’ So, I just really started swinging, because I really want this for the team.”

Sequoia had its hands full with Jackson, a senior outside hitter who finished with a match-high 27 kills.

“She’s our offensive player of the year,” Bullard head coach William Staley said. “It really is hard for us to win volleyball games when she’s not on the court. She can kind of terminate at will from anywhere on the court — back row, front row. She’s just really athletic. So, it makes it hard for other teams to slow her down because of how high she jumps, and how hard she hits the ball.”

Bullard had plenty of other weapons, with big junior middle Ella Rowe wreaking havoc early. Rowe finished with nine kills and four blocks.

“[The Bullard attack] was tough, I think,” Matossian said. “We worked really hard. We scouted, obviously. And just being able to have the discipline. They are some pretty strong hitters. There were some moments where they had their kills. But, we were able to overcome it.”

The scouting loomed large in a pivotal Game 3 win, as Sequoia earned set point three times amid an extra-points battle. While senior outside hitter Katalina Tuipulotu had a hand in carrying Game 3 to overtime — scoring seven of her team-high 20 kills in the set — it was Winters who finally put the set away with a rocket off the left side.

The well-travelled Bullard fans began getting agitated in Game 4 when some calls didn’t go their way. It’s easy for road teams to get grumpy in Nor Cal games, and Bullard had as good of an excuse as any with a three-and-a-half hour drive time in the rain from Fresno. But, in the end, Bullard pulled off a Game 4 win, sending it to a race-to-15 final set.

Sequoia was sitting pretty, breaking a 7-all tie when Winters chopped the block off the left side. Then, Bullard misfired long to put the Ravens up 10-7, but came roaring back with a 4-0 run to take the lead on Jackson’s impressive slide-step kill off the left pin, forcing Sequoia to take a timeout.

“I think that there was a lot of positivity,” Staley said. “I think that the players have been in some really tight games before, and we’ve had to come back in some really tough games. So, I think there was a lot of expectations that we would be able to come back. And since we had, and they called a timeout, it was a lot of expectation that we can actually finish this and put the team away.”

Tuipulotu tied it with a kill to force a side-out, then Fiel stepped to the service line to fire a go-ahead ace. Shortly thereafter, Matossian’s fifth kill of the night had the Ravens celebrating in the middle of the court.

With the win, the Ravens advance to the Nor Cal quarterfinals to host No. 5 Los Gatos Saturday night at 6 p.m.