Coyote volleyball overmatched by Apaches

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

Madera’s Zoe Rodriguez reaches up for a block during Tuesday’s County/Metro Athletic Conference match with the Sanger Apaches in Joe Flores Gym.

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The Madera Coyotes girls volleyball team put together a valiant effort after suffering a brutal defeat in the first set against Sanger. But it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the visitors from winning 3-0.

“Sanger is definitely good and they’re very consistent, but not something we can’t handle,” Madera head coach Meghan Haas said. “We just didn’t do a very good job on our side of the net.”

Haas added that Sanger keeps the pressure on their opponents throughout the match. She said it takes a very smart attacking team to challenge them, but the Coyotes, “aren’t there yet.”

Madera, who lost 25-3 in the first set Tuesday in Joe Flores Gym, led 8-4 in the second. Sanger, however, rallied to take a 14-11 lead. After Madera called a timeout to stop the bleeding, Sanger continued to add to its lead.

The Coyotes, once again, showed their resilience after Sanger tried to pull away, cutting the deficit to a single point. The Apaches then found another gear in the late stages to win the set 25-21.

Sanger jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the third set. After a service ace from Madera’s Emma Richardson, Sanger was still holding a comfortable 10-4 lead. Moments later, the Apaches pushed the lead to double digits.

Despite committing a pair of net violation errors late in the third, Sanger was cruising with a 24-11 lead. The Apaches proceeded to nail the final point and secure a 25-11 win in the closing stanza.

Haas said her team might have been rattled when Sanger pounced on them quickly and put them in a 10-3 hole.

“You can see it in their faces,” Haas said. “They definitely were not happy about it. There was a little bit of embarrassment.”

But Haas was happy with her team’s effort in the second set.

“They did a good job of coming out in the second set and making sure they showed a good side of them,” she said.