Ponderosa volleyball fails in fifth-game bid

SHINGLE SPRINGS — The Ponderosa High boys volleyball team’s only chance to win Thursday’s match with visiting Roseville was to take the Tigers to the end.

In desperate need to win the fourth game to force the winner-takes-all fifth set, the Bruins held the early advantage before four consecutive mishits derailed the hosts. The quartet of unforced errors was enough to enable Roseville to catch and overtake Ponderosa for the 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 25-21 nonleague victory.

“Roseville was real scrappy but as the night progressed we did a good job being scrappy as well. They (Tigers) were just a little more consistent,” Bruin coach Amy Stockett said.

With a brand new, newborn at one side of Stockett, her team on the other side is also new in that only five returned from last year: captains Griffin O’Camb and Duncan Alexander and Riley Moore, Ryan Albertazzi and Kory Barri. Ponderosa’s floor general is freshman call-up Taylor Charron.

Stockett was impressed with Moore’s play Thursday and felt the senior libero’s passing helped set up the Bruins’ offense.

After the Tigers grabbed the opening set, mistakes slowed the Roseville team in the second as Ponderosa led start to finish. Alexander’s early hitting got the Bruins going and his ace ended it as the match was tied after two games.

O’Camb’s block gave the Bruins a 5-4 lead in the third set and his kills — including an in-your-face spike — allowed Ponderosa to hang point-for-point with the Tigers who won out on several late plays from Connor Miller.

Roseville came back to take the fourth game to improve to 5-0 while the Bruins fell to 1-3.

Stat-wise for Ponderosa, O’Camb had 16 kills and 24 service receive, Charron had 37 assists, Tanner Charron had 12 kills and three aces, Moore had 20 digs and 23 service receives and Alexander had seven kills.

“We’re trying to jell as a team. As we progress we’s better understand our strengths and weaknesses and become a better team overall,” Stockett said.

Jerry Heinzer

Jerry Heinzer is going on 12 years as an employee of the Mountain Democrat and is currently the Sports Editor. Contact Jerry at 530-344-5074 or jheinzer@mtdemocrat.net. Follow @ JHeinzerMtDemo on Twitter.

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