Toros volleyball drops first-ever home match
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Matilda Torres’ Bryance Gonzales puts down a kill in Tuesday’s three-set loss to the Edison Tigers.
The Matilda Torres Toros girls volleyball team officially christened its home gym to open the 2021 season with a 3-0 loss to the Edison-Fresno Tigers.
In a battle between two coaches who were former teammates at Madera High, the Tigers earned a 25-15, 25-10, 25-16 victory over the Toros on Tuesday. Toros head coach Adam Horner and Edison head coach Jared Matousek were Coyote teammates. Additionally, Edison assistant coach Jerianne Murphy is the mother of Torres’ Athletics Director Jordan Murphy, who was celebrating his birthday Tuesday.
“They started getting confidence,” Horner said of his young team. “This is really their first real game. They are all coming from junior high. They haven’t had varsity experience. They progressed very fast. Even the first game wasn’t too bad. Eliminating our mistakes will change the outcome of these games, for sure.”
With a team full of sophomores and juniors, Horner is ready for his team to finally play some matches and get that court time they need.
“They were definitely nervous,” Horner said. “I saw some shaky hands. Once they get some games under their belts like this, which we have a lot like this, they will pull through.”
Although the Toros only had 12 kills in the match, seven different players recorded kills, led by three from Sabrina Cerillo. However, Edison capitalized on Torres mistakes while only recording five kills.
However, what did the Toros in was serve receive. Edison recorded 17 service aces in the match.
Both teams were playing their first match of the season and it showed with difficulties with the line-up, where to make substitutions and how to rotate. Both teams combined for 17 service errors in the first set, but settled down in the third. Neither team missed its serve in the third set.
Alexis Barriga had the distinction of putting down the first kill to give the Toros the first lead in its building at 1-0.
However, Edison scored 10 of the next 12 points to open a 10-3 lead. After trades in service errors, Edison scored four straight points for an 18-6 lead.
After an Edison missed serve, Samaria Benavidez served an ace and Stephanie Venegas put down a kill to get within 10.
Edison kept the lead at 10 before a Barriga ace cut the lead to nine. However, the Tigers closed the set by scoring four of the next six points for a 25-15 win.
Edison scored the first five points of the second set before an Ariana Varela tip kill and an Isha Herrera bump kill scored the first Toros points.
After Edison took a 7-2 lead, the Toros scored the next four points, led by two aces from Sol Barrera to cut the lead to one.
The Tigers scored five of the next six points and 16 of the next 20 to record a 25-10 victory. In the final 16 points, five were scored on aces.
The Tigers jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the third set, but the Toros showed some mettle and mounted a small comeback. With Barriga serving, the Toros scored two points to cut the lead to six.
After Edison took a seven-point lead, Cerillo and Bryance Gonzales put down two kills each for a four-point run to cut the lead to three.
Edison got the side out and served up three aces in a row to take a 20-12 lead.
Benavidez served up three straight points, including an ace to cut the lead to four.
Edison got the side out and served up two aces in a row to get to match point and a kill ended the match with a 25-16 third set victory.
Torres continues its mini-homestand with a match Monday evening against Washington Union-Easton with an approximate game time at 5:30 p.m.
