Sierra boys volleyball beat Lathrop for the first time in school history
Sierra High School gym had never seen a boy's volleyball match garner such a bustling crowd until familiar foe Lathrop rolled into town.
In the past 10 games against the Lathrop, Sierra has fallen short every time. Sophomore Owen Altadonna and the rest of the Timberwolves rose to the challenge on Friday.
“That was our best performance this season hands down,” Altadonna said of the April 21 match. “This was a team we wanted to be for so long. In all of the school’s history, we’ve never beaten them and we finally did it.”
With its crowd rooting them on, they took down the Spartans in five sets to win 3-2.
Here are the key takeaways from Sierra’s historic win over Lathrop.
'Owen is Owen'
The last time these two teams met, Lathrop handled Sierra with ease to win in a sweep. The Timberwolves took the loss personally and came out in tonight’s match controlling the pace. At the middle hitter position, Altadonna played an essential role in doing so.
Standing at 6-foot 3-inches, he ended the first set with six kills helping Sierra cruise to a 25-13 win. He kept up his intense attack all game to end the match leading all players in kills with 20. There wasn’t much Lathrop could do to stop him.
“Owen's an awesome kid and I believe he’s very athletic,” Lathrop head coach Toa Faalii said. “I tried to tell my middle blockers to go up before he does but you know Owen is Owen and he got stuff done today.”
His success on offense spread throughout the team helping the Timberwolves take a 2-0 lead over Lathrop. Senior David Caamano, junior Santino Flores, and sophomore Xavier Gaspar combined for 25 kills. Serving-wise, junior captain Primo Estandarte ended the game leading all players in aces with seven.
'Wildest crowd ever' don floaties, bikinis
Despite having all the momentum and just a set shy from pulling off a sweep, Sierra wasn’t out of the woods yet. Lathrop fans came pouring into the gym from parents to students sporting swimwear and floaties for a beach-themed student section.
Once the Spartans started to rally in the third set, the visitor section erupted.
“That was the wildest crowd I’d ever seen,” Altadonna said. “The Lathrop fans came out and they came out big.”
The load Spartan crowd shifted things in their favor. Leading them on the court were the senior-freshman duo of Jerico Santillan and Gabriel Faalii. Santillan came through with timely attacks and aces. He led the team with 14 kills and three aces. Faalii added 11 kills and three aces.
This allowed Lathrop to take set three 25-23 and the following set 25-21. Santillan, Faalii, and the loud crowd put pressure on the Timberwolves and threaten to snatch the win right after falling behind two sets early on.
Keeping composure to close out
“This was the first time where we were up two and then lost two in a row,” said Amy Rosendin, Sierra’s head coach. “I think they had to get it in their heads that they could do it. They had to remember to keep it simple.”
By the fifth set, the Timberwolves started to play as they did in the first two wins. Despite Lathrop’s crowd not letting up, they stayed composed and jumped out to an early lead and maintained it to take the final set 15-9.
Taking down the Spartans helped expand Sierra’s winning streak to 7-0. It also was the perfect way to prepare for its remaining league games next week against Central Catholic and Manteca.
“I just feel so proud of the boys, they’ve worked so hard and they’ve played so hard,” Rosendin said. “Tonight’s game couldn’t have been any better of practice for Manteca on Monday. Last year we took second place in league losing to Manteca, so here we go.”
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Sierra boys volleyball beat Lathrop for first time in school history
