GRANADA HILLS — There are not many straight-set nights in the West Valley League. However, the Granada Hills Charter girls volleyball team continues to show its resilience and readiness for anything.
There was no point in Wednesday’s home battle with Taft where one team looked like it was going to win the match. The Highlanders kept their foot on the gas, and thanks to some strong serving, found their third league win of the year.
Granada Hills won the wild battle 21-25, 25-14, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13.
The Highlanders (16-11, 3-1) shot ahead 8-2 in the fifth set but the Toreadors (19-8, 1-2) slowly chipped away. The game looked like it was easily going to deuce before senior outside hitter Alexis Cuan slammed down her 20th kill of the night for match point.
Cuan was steady for most of the night, and started the match with eight kills in set one. The outside hitter powered her team ahead with kill after kill and as Taft had no answer or dig, but the Toreadors still managed to take set one.
“I was pretty mentally prepared,” Cuan said. “I knew going into this game that Taft would be a tough opponent. I knew that their back row would be pretty strong and that I’d have a big block in front of me, so I mentally prepared myself. I was like, ‘I gotta get around the block. I gotta make sure I don’t head towards the libero.’”
Cuan added three acesl in the fourth set, while teammate Ella Arazm totaled four.
The second set was tight until midway when Highlanders junior Amber Velasquez demolished the Taft serve-receive. Velasquez hammered in back-to-back aces twice in what turned into a 9-0 run to close out the second set.
The junior finished the night with a match-high seven aces.
“She’s always had that really strong serving arm,” said first year Granada Hills coach Donaldo Morales. “It’s really good to see that she had that confidence and went out there.”
Velasquez and Cuan are both coming off big injuries this past year. Both of their impacts on the court could make the difference in as Granada Hills tries to win its first league championship in three years.
“I’m feeling really good this year,” Cuan said. “I am trying really hard with all my rehab, strength training, physical therapy, just to keep myself from the injury streak, because I’ve had some pretty big ones the last few years.”
The Highlanders didn’t lead in the third game until 20-19 as defensive specialist Abby DiMattia broke the tie with an ace before Velasquez later fired in another ace to take the set.
Granada Hills also trailed for the majority of the fourth set but always had an answer when it needed it.
Taft was led by senior Laila Braimah with 19 kills and an ace. Junior Chloe Fields added 10 kills and two blocks.
Granada Hills had an extra edge with setter WeiWei Gao’s big swing. Gao was steady all night running the offense but wasn’t shy from ripping a big hit once the opportunity arrived.
The setter finished well above 30 assists, seven kills and two aces.
It was Granada Hills’ first victory over Taft in three years, which made the win even sweeter for Morales.
“It was a really, really good win,” Morales said. “We played Taft in the summer, and they just completely destroyed us. They played their bench on us, so to come back and get this win, it’s pretty sweet.”
The Highlanders will head into tournament play this weekend before returning to league play Monday at Birmingham. Taft has a home game Thursday against Chatsworth.
“I want to see us play hard,” Cuan said. “The last few years, we’ve had our moments, we’ve played hard, but I want to see this team finish it through. I feel like we’re mentally together. I feel like we’re cohesive this year, so I think we have a really good shot.”
Both teams, as well as the majority of the other teams in the West Valley League, are within reach of the league championship. Morales just wants to see his team remain steady.
“We just gotta be consistent,” Morales said. “If we serve well and pass well, I think we can take anybody. It’s whenever we start to waver on that when things get a little bit ugly for us. But that’s something that we’ve been really trying to focus on since the summer. It’s been holding out for us, and we’ve been able to kind of make teams uncomfortable, put some pressure on them, and come out with some big wins because of it.”