Girls Varsity Volleyball vs Duarte

October 25, 2019

Pretty in Pink! And several fans, clad in their finest October pink, brought brooms into the stands to support girls varsity volleyball as they rebounded from a shaky start in the first set to take a clean sweep Thursday night on the Mesa. The team won the first CIF round in 3 sets – 25-21, 25-12, 25-16 .
Duarte’s crafty play had the Rams scrambling on defense to start, but once Cate was able to hone in on the offensive style of their opponent, the Rams took control of the match. Duarte tried to find the court but Cate did a great job covering each other and the open areas of the court, which ultimately led to points.
After missing six serves in the first set, Cate made a strong comeback. Down 19-21 they managed to outscore Duarte 6-0 for the win. The comeback established the tone for the rest of the night where the Rams maintained significant leads in sets two and three to a sweep and first round CIF win. Missing only two serves the remainder of the match, the strong serving nabbed nine aces in total for the team, one of which was a sweet cross court floater ace by Grace Blankenhorn ’20 for the match win.
The outside hitters led in kills on the night. Junior Grace Johnson and sophomore Elise Guerrand-Hermes both contributed eight kills each. Both setters Maya Blattberg ‘20 and Riley Borchardt ’21 found the same groove on the right side to collect six kills apiece.

The win gives Cate an 18-3, 7-1 record on the season. Next up is the second round of CIF playoffs on Saturday when Cate travels to take on West Valley. The start time for that match will be 5:00pm.