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Bulldogs upset Saints in first round of CIF playoffs

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Although Ramona High School’s boys volleyball team finished with a 20-loss season, that 20th loss was in the CIF Division I quarterfinals after the Bulldogs upset St. Augustine in the first round.

“The 12th seed getting into the quarterfinals, that’s pretty good,” said coach Jeff Klauda.

The May 12 playoff win at St. Augustine and the May 15 post-season loss at Escondido gave Ramona a final overall record of 16-20, including a 6-4 Valley League record which was worth third place in the six-team standings.

“The guys really turned things around,” Klauda said. “They had a good run.”

Ramona began Valley League play with a 2-7 record, although part of that was due to scheduling superior non-league teams to improve the strength of schedule used in power rankings that determine playoff selection.

“Our non-league schedule was brutal,” Klauda said.

The Bulldogs played two of their three tournaments after league play commenced. The final week of league play brought Ramona a four-game victory May 5 at Valley Center and a four-game loss May 7 at home against San Pasqual.

The Bulldogs won 25-23 and 25-21 games at Valley Center before the Jaguars’ 25-22 victory in game three averted a sweep. Ramona concluded the match with a 25-14 triumph.

“I think it was all-around the best game we played as a team,” Klauda said.

Hitting percentages are calculated by subtracting hitting errors from kills and dividing that result into the total number of attack swings. Ramona hit .281, .321, .073, and .293 in the four games.

“The stats and the data backs up what the coaching staff saw,” Klauda said.

The third-game percentage doesn’t include another source of unforced errors.

“The big thing is we missed a bunch of serves,” Klauda said. “In the fourth game we were able to turn it around.”

Davis Windes had a hitting percentage of .550 with 13 kills and two errors in 20 swings. Dylan Shields had 12 kills and a hitting percentage of .375.

Trevor Johnson had five kills and a .235 hitting percentage. Isaiah Spieker led the Bulldogs with 26 assists while Taylor Holas had 19 digs.

“It was a good team effort, good team win,” Klauda said.

The May 7 match was Senior Night and was the final home game for seven Ramona seniors. San Pasqual’s 25-23 victory in the first game was countered by Ramona’s 26-24 triumph, but the Golden Eagles finished the match with 25-17 and 25-19 wins.

“We did compete and played them much better than we did the first time,” Klauda said. “We took some good swings, in particular in game two.”

The April 21 match at San Pasqual was a 25-9, 22-25, 25-14, 25-12 Golden Eagles victory.

Windes had 15 kills in the May 7 match, Shields added 12 kills, and Calvin Harris contributed five kills. Spieker provided 30 assists and Holas recorded 20 digs.

Even with the loss, the Bulldogs had a winning league record for the first time since 2009-10, when a 6-2 Valley League mark gave the Bulldogs second place in the standings.

“It was nice. The guys put together a string,” Klauda said. “We put ourselves in a position to qualify for playoffs.”

Escondido earned the fourth seed in the Division I playoffs. San Pasqual was seeded sixth. The power rankings indicated the 11th seed for Ramona, but the desire to avoid league opponents in the first round of playoffs resulted in Ramona being given the 12th seed and a first-round game at fifth-seeded Saint Augustine.

Ramona defeated the Saints in a five-game match.

“Had a really solid game,” Klauda said. “Had a pretty balanced attack.”

The Bulldogs hit .333 in their 25-23 game one victory.

Two different St. Augustine runs of points, along with Ramona’s .033 hitting percentage, contributed to the Saints winning the second game by a 25-23 margin. St. Augustine also won game three by a 25-23 score, although the Bulldogs hit .300.

“We had some ups and downs,” Klauda said. “We were behind almost the entire game and made a huge push at the end.”

The fourth game ended with the Bulldogs on the preferred end of the 25-17 score.

“That was a petty solid complete game,” Klauda said. “We started getting some blocks.”

Ramona also hit .280 in the fourth game. The Bulldogs had a .182 hitting percentage in the fifth game but prevailed by a 15-12 score.

“We led pretty much the whole way,” Klauda said.

Shields had 19 kills and a .324 hitting percentage against the Saints. Windes had 17 kills, Harris provided nine kills, and Johnson was responsible for five kills. Spieker set for 43 assists and Holas recovered 16 digs.

“Our serve-receive was the best it’s been the entire year,” Klauda said. “It was just a great team win.”

The May 15 match was the fourth of the year between Ramona and Escondido.

“Our serve-receive was pretty good,” Klauda said. “The offense wasn’t clicking.”

The Cougars won all three games. In the first game Ramona had 15 unforced errors in the 25-13 loss. Another 10 unforced errors led to a 25-16 second game.

Ramona had only four hitting errors in the third game, but the Bulldogs were still on the short end of the 25-16 final score.

“It’s a bummer because the guys were playing good defense and we were controlling the ball,” Klauda said. “Offensively we were just off.”

Although the 20-loss season followed two 19-loss seasons for the Bulldogs, Ramona’s 19-19 record in 2014 didn’t include any playoff matches.

“The boys competed really well. I was proud of them,” Klauda said of the 2015 Bulldogs. “The guys as a group progressed throughout the entire season. The guys were always working hard and getting better.”

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