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Bulldog spikers return to 20-win status

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Ramona High School’s boys volleyball team has won at least 20 matches for the second time in the past three seasons.

An April 27 win at Valley Center gave the Bulldogs 20 wins for 2010, and a home win April 29 against Orange Glen improved Ramona’s record to 21-11, including a 5-2 league mark. The Bulldogs finished the 2008 season with a 29-11 record after reaching the CIF Division III finals but fell to 15-17 in 2009.

Ramona entered the Valley Center game having won four of the previous week’s seven matches. A 25-23, 25-23, 32-34, 25-21 league win April 20 at San Marcos was followed by a 25-10, 29-27, 25-17 loss April 22 to Mount Carmel, which has yet to lose a league game let alone a league match.

At the West Coast Challenge tournament, Ramona swept its matches against University City, Steele Canyon, and San Dieguito Academy during pool play April 23 at Steele Canyon High School, but during the April 24 matches at Valhalla High School San Marcos took a 25-23, 24-26, 15-12 victory at Ramona’s expense and Valhalla’s 25-23, 29-27 win over Ramona eliminated the Bulldogs from further tournament competition.

In the first round of league play April 14, Ramona defeated Valley Center at home in four games. The rematch at Valley Center was also a four-game victory.

“We played pretty well. We didn’t do anything extremely well except we did block very, very well,” said Ramona coach Jeff Klauda. “The guys made some very good adjustments.”

Ramona won the first game by a 28-26 overscore, Valley Center took a 26-24 victory in the second game, and Ramona earned 25-23 and 25-20 wins in the final two games.

“They (Valley Center) played pretty well, but it was our blocking that made the difference,” Klauda said.

Every Ramona starter except libero Brad Behnke — who is stationed in the back row — had at least one block against the Jaguars. Garrett Vizcarra led the Bulldogs with six blocks, Ian Nowakowski had five blocks, Kenny Lawler and Billy White had three blocks apiece, Garrett Adelman added two blocks, and Luis Nunez had one block.

“That was huge,” Klauda said of six players recording blocks.

Nowakowski led the team with 14 kills, White had 11 kills, Nunez contributed 8 kills, and Lawler and Vizcarra each had seven kills. Nunez led the team with nine digs while Behnke produced seven digs. Adelman had 45 assists.

“Any time you beat Valley Center, it’s a big deal, it’s a big win,” Klauda said. “Whether it was our 20th or our first, that’s a big deal.”

Earlier that day the CIF Board of Managers approved the realignment of the North County Conference, ending at least for the near future the league rivalry between Ramona and Valley Center.

“That could be the last time we see them for a while, so it was nice to beat them both times this year,” Klauda said.

As was the case with Ramona’s April 13 road win over the Patriots, the April 29 match was also a three-game sweep.

“We played a very solid match. That was nice to see,” Klauda said. “We didn’t make a lot of hitting errors. We served tough, played good defense.”

Ramona defeated Orange Glen in 25-15, 25-14, and 25-19 games.

Nowakowski and Nunez shared the team lead with 12 kills apiece.

Adelman led the Bulldogs with 34 assists, Lawler had three blocks, and White had nine digs.

The Bulldogs close out the regular season today at home against San Marcos. Senior Night festivities will occur prior to the match.

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