Bulldogs on bubble for volleyball playoffs
Saturday’s CIF playoff selection and seeding meeting will determine next week’s fate for Ramona High School’s boys volleyball team. The Bulldogs will receive an invitation to post-season competition if they are deemed to be among the top 12 Division I teams.
Following an April 30 home win against Orange Glen that gave Ramona a 14-18 overall season record along with a 5-3 Valley League statistic, the power rankings placed the Bulldogs 12th.
“We’re right there on the edge,” said coach Jeff Klauda.
Because only the eight top seeded teams receive playoff home matches, the Bulldogs’ contest Thursday against San Pasqual is likely to be the final home competition of the year and for the Ramona High School careers of the seniors who will be honored during Senior Night festivities. The Bulldogs will also be seeking to avenge an April 21 loss to the Golden Eagles in the San Pasqual gym.
“It was not good. We really didn’t play well,” Klauda said.
Part of Ramona’s problem was the jump serves delivered by San Pasqual outside hitter Chris Bonar.
“We just had a hard time handling his serve,” Klauda said. “We just got basically served off the court.”
San Pasqual won game one by a 25-9 score. The Bulldogs evened the match with a 25-22 victory, but 25-14 and 25-12 San Pasqual triumphs settled the competition in the Golden Eagles’ favor.
An April 22 non-league match at home against La Jolla was also a four-game loss.
“We lost in four, but we played so much better that day,” Klauda said.
The Vikings opened the match with 25-18 and 25-20 triumphs. Ramona prevented a sweep with a 25-14 victory.
“The third game we just kept on rolling,” Klauda said. “We went out and played really, really well to start that game.”
The match concluded with a 25-17 La Jolla victory.
“The last game it was really back and forth,” Klauda said. “At the end we had a couple of breakdowns.”
Ramona returned to league competition April 23 at San Marcos.
“The last time we played them we served and passed very well,” Klauda said. “San Marcos played much better this time.”
Ramona opened league play April 7 at home and defeated San Marcos in three games. The second-round match lasted five games. Ramona was on the winning end of the 25-21 first game.
Hitting percentages are calculated by subtracting hitting errors from kills and dividing that result into the total number of attack swings. Ramona hit .000 in the second game, in which the Knights overcame a Bulldogs lead to win 25-23. The Bulldogs hit .044 in game three, which San Marcos won by a 25-20 margin.
Ramona’s 25-18 victory in the fourth game included a hitting percentage of .175. The 15-12 fifth game in Ramona’s favor saw the Bulldogs hit .429 with six kills and no errors.
“The boys really responded and played well,” Klauda said.
Davis Windes led the Bulldogs with 17 kills, Dylan Shields had nine kills, Trevor Johnson and Isaiah Spieker contributed seven kills apiece, and the six kills of Calvin Harris included the one that won the match.
Spieker added 37 assists and four serving aces, Johnson led the team with five blocks, and Taylor Holas complemented his 23-dig performance against La Jolla with 27 digs against the Knights.
The league match April 28 at Escondido was a 25-16, 25-21, 25-13 Cougars victory in which the Bulldogs hit -0.032, 0.031, and -0.103.
“It was just a tough outing,” Klauda said. “We weren’t moving our feet when we were supposed to. Part of it is there’s a lot of new guys on the team.”
Although Ramona’s only April 29 practice was prior to that day’s home game against Valley Center, the Bulldogs showed improvement during the match.
“The guys did a good job,” Klauda said. “They worked hard to move their feet.”
The footwork resulted in a 25-21, 29-27, 25-14 victory. Windes had 10 kills, Johnson recorded seven kills, Harris added five kills, Spieker supplied 25 assists and four aces, and Holas contributed 16 digs.
The April 30 win over Orange Glen involved 25-14, 25-18 and 25-19 scores.
“The guys did a really good job of staying focused,” Klauda said.
Spieker had 28 assists against the Patriots. The large leads enabled Klauda to use his bench, limiting other individual statistics. Shields led the team with six kills while Johnson, Harris and Matt Miller had five kills apiece.