Spikers defeat Patriots, split West Coast Challenge matches

Ramona High School’s boys volleyball team split its six West Coast Challenge tournament matches April 17 and 18 and won Valley League competition April 14 at Orange Glen to give the Bulldogs a 4-3 record for the week.

The win over Orange Glen gave Ramona, which travels to San Marcos for today’s match, a 2-1 Valley League record. The tournament ended with Ramona holding an overall season record of 11-15.

“We’re getting good production out of a lot of the guys,” said coach Jeff Klauda. “I still think our best volleyball’s ahead of us.”

The Bulldogs returned from Orange Glen with a 25-22, 25-17, 25-22 victory.

“I was able to get pretty much everyone into the game,” Klauda said of the three-game sweep.

One player who did not participate was middle blocker Trevor Johnson, who was rested due to shin splints. Outside hitter Armando Abarca, who remains on the team while awaiting medical clearance to return after his concussion, also did not play.

“We passed pretty well. Defense was decent. We hit OK. We still had a handful of unforced hitting errors,” Klauda said. “We served terrible. That’s why the games were so close.”

The Bulldogs missed 22 serves during the match.

“We almost served the game away,” Klauda said.

Dylan Shields had eight kills and a hitting percentage of .368.

“As the season goes on, he’s getting a lot more confident,” Klauda said.

Isaiah Spieker had 27 assists against the Patriots.

Christian High School was the site of April 17 pool play and April 18 bracket play for Ramona at the West Coast Challenge tournament. Francis Parker, which was seeded first not only in the pool but also in the entire tournament, was Ramona’s first opponent.

“They know how to play the game,” Klauda said.

The Lancers took a 25-16, 25-18 victory at Ramona’s expense.

“We played very well with them,” Klauda said. “We had one of our better attacking matches.”

In the first game Francis Parker had an 8-1 lead.

“It took us a while, but the guys started to adjust,” Klauda said. “We were point for point with them for a long time.”

Christian was seeded second in the pool and Ramona was seeded third, but the match between those two teams ended with the Bulldogs taking a pair of 25-22 victories.

“All the guys were contributing offensively,” Klauda said.

Calvin Harris had seven kills and a .583 hitting percentage against Christian. Shields added six kills. Spieker contributed 15 assists.

“It was a nice team win,” Klauda said.

Ramona closed out pool play with a 25-14, 25-14 triumph over Mount Miguel. Harris had eight kills and a .545 hitting percentage. Sean Stemm had five kills and a .714 hitting percentage.

Second place in the pool sent Ramona to the Gold Division for the second day; the Bulldogs had been in the Silver Division for their previous two tournaments. The April 18 seeding match against El Camino Real High School of Woodland Hills was a 25-20, 25-23 Conquistadors victory.

“The first game we just killed ourselves with unforced errors,” Klauda said. “We eliminated a lot of those mistakes in the second game.”

The Bulldogs’ first elimination match was against Escondido.

“We played very well,” Klauda said.

Although the Cougars prevailed by a 25-21 score in the first game, Ramona responded with 25-21 and 15-13 wins. Harris had six blocks during the match, including four in the early stages of the third game. Harris added four kills, as did Shields, while Davis Windes led the Bulldogs with eight kills and had a hitting percentage of .300. Spieker recorded 18 assists.

Francis Parker faced Ramona in the quarterfinal match and ended the Bulldogs’ tournament participation with a 25-15, 25-14 victory.