Causeway rivalry continues; St. Francis takes on women’s volleyball
By Auden Marsh-Armstrong & Marco Iandolino,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–
The Davis High varsity women’s volleyball team faced off against St. Francis at its home conference match, losing to its rivals 3-1 in the fourth set on Oct. 11.
Blue Devil victory came in the second set of the match.
“We definitely gave them a run for their money,” assistant coach Jason Balmes said.
The Blue Devils knew that the game was going to be hard. They had recently lost to St. Francis last September.
“We don’t want them to come in here and step all over us like what happened last game,” senior captain Kate Thompson said. “We just all have to stay positive.”
Amanda Kim, the only sophomore on the varsity team, got the first kill of the game in the first set. Kim made two more kills throughout the match.
DHS lost the first set 25-11.
“We were angry that we lost[…]That’s not how we usually play,” junior Maraia Tuqiri said.
The Devils made a comeback in the second set, causing St. Francis to call a timeout during Davis’ streak when the Devils were winning 18-15.
“We switched our mentality and came out a lot stronger,” Tuqiri said.
DHS won the second set.
“It felt like a huge victory,” Amanda’s mother Valerie Kim said.
Junior Mia Gladding usually never serves, but in Wednesday night’s game, Gladding had a significant serving streak, making four serves in a row in the second set. Overall in the game, she made six successful serves that racked in the points for the Devils.
Junior Tiya Kamba-Griffin was the leading hitter of the game. Kamba-Griffin had six kills and six blocks during the game.
“Maraia and Tiya did pretty [well], both were pretty vocal and they were just positive all the way through,” Balmes said.
In the second set, an outside hitter took a hard line hit at Tuqiri, right back that hit her in the chest knocking her to the ground and stopping the play. Next serve, Tuqiri was back in and ready to go.
“I was just happy it was under my chin because if it was my forehead, I would’ve been concussed, but I’m all good,” Tuqiri said.
In a relatively uneventful set, DHS lost the third set 25-18.
In the fourth set, Tuqiri was going to set the ball, but at the last second she dumped the ball into the deep corner causing Saint Francis to dive and miss.
“I thought it was the best game we’ve ever played even though we lost,” Tuqiri said.
St. Francis won the fourth set 25-19.
Both Tuqiri and Kamba-Griffin were not too fond of the referees.
“We’ve had worst [referees] in the past, but he wasn’t calling doubles which is a really big thing we could easily get points on,” Kamba-Griffin said.
“At least they didn’t call anything on both sides, so it was a pretty fair bad reffing job,” Tuqiri said.
The DHS JV women’s volleyball also hit it off against St. Francis in a hard-fought match, but they ended up falling to the Troubadours as well.
Both sets went to St. Francis, DHS’s fierce rival, with the first set ending 14-25 and the second 22-25.
Davis started the night with a disadvantage, trailing the entire first set.
A miraculous double save by sophomore Celine Varland and block from sophomore Sam Hendrix helped put the Devils back on track.
Despite these plays, the Devils could not catch the Troubadours.
The second set was more successful.
“I think we really picked it up in the second set,” JV captain and sophomore Bailee Nicolet said.
The Devils eventually took the lead by a clean hit from sophomore Sophie Purves to put them up 3-2.
The lead did not last very long and the Devils were down 15-17 towards the end of the set. A series of great defensive and offensive efforts put the Devils up 18-17, laying the path to equal the series of sets 1-1.
Nonetheless, DHS could not match St. Francis’ attack, and the set ended 22-25 with the Troubadours putting an end to the fierce causeway rivalry.
Despite the loss, the Devils held their heads up high.
“If you’re not pumped up then you’re just down on yourself and that’s not good […] the adrenaline definitely helps,” sophomore hitter Gaby Tad-y said.
