Rams readjust and keep rolling

The Rams (4-0 PAL Ocean, 11-6 overall) have been forced to retool in a hurry. Shifting to a 5-1 attack, the onus is now on senior setter Kailea Nobleza to navigate the offense. And while it took the Rams a couple sets to find their footing Thursday, they found a groove late as Nobleza and her hitters started connecting more efficiently in a four-set win 25-14, 25-13, 21-25, 25-18 over Mills (0-4, 0-7).

“I think it was us warming up in the beginning,” Lee said. “It was just us seeing what the other team had to offer and then doing what we had to do to win.”

Lee, a sophomore outside hitter, finished with 12 kills. Chin connected for a match-high 17 kills, and was spectacular in the fourth and decisive set. The senior middle hitter produced seven kills in Game 4. With Westmoor trailing 13-12, she scored back-to-back kills to spark a five-point run to put the Rams ahead to stay.

Chin said she and her Rams teammates are accustomed to learning on the fly. When the team began summer workouts with four sophomores and two first-year varsity juniors, Westmoor’s future wasn’t looking very pretty.

“When we first started coming together we were really bad,” Chin said.

Now, through two weeks of Peninsula Athletic League Ocean Division play, Westmoor is tied atop the standings with four straight league wins. What Chin called bad team chemistry at the outset of the season has obviously turned around in a big way.

 “I did not realize these guys were going to gel so quickly,” Westmoor head coach Rex Mauga-Head said. “It’s just filling in the gaps to make up for the injury. And we have four sophomores playing now, so we have a lot of young players too.”

The improvements were evident Thursday as Westmoor fought through the early going to establish its identity without Ho. Both Westmoor and Mills opened with strong defense and sustained rallies, but neither team was putting down the ball through the opening set. Mills only totaled five team kills in Game 1, but Westmoor totaled just 10.

The terminating struggles continued into Game 2 for both teams, outside of Mills’ Lexi Francisco, who totaled four of her team-high 12 match kills in the set. Chin, though, helped the Rams establish a rhythm not from the front row, but from the service line.

The senior took to the serve with the Rams clinging to a 15-13 lead. She went on to score 10 service points, including two aces, to help Westmoor close out Game 2 on an 11-0 run.

“I was glad with a lot of aces I got,” Chin said. “It just helped keep everybody’s energy up.”

Mills refuse to go quietly though. Westmoor jumped out to an 8-4 lead in Game 3, but Mills responded with a 7-1 run to jump ahead. Francisco continued her steady energetic attacks up front, but it was the play of Kellie Rong — who scored four match kills, all in the third set — that carried the Vikings in the late going.

Tied at 20-20, Rong scored a pretty fade off the left side to start a 5-1 run to close out the set.

Mills again overcame a Game 4 deficit, with Westmoor slugging its way to a 5-0 opening. After tying it at 10-10 and 12-12, though, the Vikings took a brief lead at 13-12 when middle hitter Chloe Tam put down an overpass to score one of her five match kills.

Chin responded with back-to-back kills through the middle though as Nobleza established a rhythm that saw five different Rams score kills in the closing set. Westmoor totaled 15 team kills in Game 4, its best single-game total of the match.

“I think she likes the pressure,” Mauga-Head said of Nobleza taking on the sole setter role. “She wanted more playing time and this is it.”

Nobleza responded to the pressure with a career-high 43 assists.

The senior setter is not the only Westmoor player to respond well to increased playing time. First-year junior Marlyn San Juan impressed with 14 digs Thursday. Only Chin, with 16 digs, had more.

For San Juan, though, it was a major stride after seeing little playing time prior to Ho’s injury.

“When that injury happened last Tuesday, she stepped up tremendously,” Mauga-Head said.

Libero Amanda Lao — another one of Westmoor’s sophomore four — also turned in a solid defensive performance, anchoring that traditionally solid defense for which the Rams are notorious.

“They’re improving so much,” Chin said of Westmoor’s back row. “They’re a really important asset to the team. And I think they’ll continue to grow.”