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Bulldog spikers prevail over Knights, Patriots

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Ramona High School’s girls volleyball team improved its Valley League record to 4-5 with wins Oct. 21 at San Marcos and Oct. 23 at home against Orange Glen.

The two wins gave the Bulldogs a 9-16 overall mark entering today’s league match at home against Valley Center.

“We’re looking forward to our three upcoming final league matches and feel like we’re doing really well,” said Coach Connie Halfaker. “We’ll see how it ends up.”

For the second time this season the Bulldogs defeated San Marcos in a five-game match.

“This time we kind of turned the corner around game four,” Halfaker said.

The Sept. 25 game at Ramona saw the Bulldogs earn a 25-10, 23-25, 14-25, 24-19, 15-10 victory. The Oct. 21 contest saw Ramona triumph 20-25, 25-20, 20-25, 25-13, 15-7.

Halfaker cited missed serves as the culprit for the Bulldogs’ losses in the first and third games, although she was pleased with how the Bulldogs played in the final two games.

“We actually played really, really well in those two games,” she said. “Everybody was just really focused.”

A lingering illness cost Ramona the starting services of setter Grace Hallams, and Morgan Gross took the setter position.

“She’s making key defensive plays,” Halfaker said of Gross.

The win against Orange Glen was also statistically more impressive than the Bulldogs’ first win over the Patriots. On Sept. 30 the Bulldogs won 25-23, 25-23, and 25-15 games at San Marcos, while on October 23 the scores were 25-11, 25-22, and 25-14.

“We were just doing everything we were supposed to,” Halfaker said.

The closeness of the second game’s score was in part due to the Patriots’ unconventional style of play which surprised the Bulldogs.

“They jumped out on us,” Halfaker said.

Ramona was down 22-20 before a sideout brought the deficit to 1 point and sent Gross to serve. Gross closed out the game with four aces.

“We made adjustments and they (the surprises) no longer worked,” Halfaker said. “By the third game we were back on a roll and weren’t surprised by anything.”

After today’s Valley Center game, the Bulldogs close out the regular season with league matches against Westview and Oceanside.

“My goal has been to finish over .500 in league,” Halfaker said. “I do think we can.”

Although the Bulldogs were swept by both Valley Center and Westview in the first round of league play, only one of those six games was decided by more than six points. Ramona lost in five games to Oceanside to close out the first half of league competition.

Ramona hosted a junior varsity tournament October 25 at the Epic Volleyball Center in Poway. La Costa Canyon won the tournament with a 25-22 triumph over Bishop’s in the one-game final match with La Costa Canyon’s Katie Kayajanian earning most valuable player honors for the tournament. Ramona’s team finished second in its pool after wins over Granite Hills and El Capitan and a loss to Santa Fe Christian before a 25-20 loss to La Jolla Country Day in the first elimination round ended the Bulldogs’ play.

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