Windsor kicks off play in inaugural NBL Oak Division
The Windsor High School volleyball squad weathered a rough start in the opening week of North Bay League play, dropping home and away matches to Santa Rosa and Montgomery.
The rocky start in the Sept. 28 meeting with Santa Rosa was in part due to scheduling, opening up against last year’s defending league champions. Further complicating matters was a skeleton crew for Windsor, which was down three starters because of illness.
The Panthers took charge early and never let up, cruising to a 25-16, 25-16, 25-19 win.
“We didn’t play well in any aspect of the game and some credit needs to go to Santa Rosa for constantly keeping pressure on us with strong serving and hitting,” Jag’s coach Rich Schwarz said. “They never gave us that opening to get on track.”
The Jaguars were back in action two nights later at Montgomery, extending the match to four hard-fought games before eventually succumbing; 25-27, 25-17, 10-25, 22-25.
“Although we lost the match in four sets we played a much stronger team game,” Schwarz reported. “The girls were more relaxed than the Santa Rosa match and ready to play, even though we were without three of our starters again.”
Pacing the Windsor offensive attack were Elena Dyer (13 kills), Madison Weber (9 kills) and Gigi Raygoza (8 kills). Defensively, the Jags were led by libero Izzy Earl (18 digs), defensive specialist Mara St. Amant (13 digs) and Nikki Howard (6 digs, 2 aces).
The Lady Jaguars (0-2, 6-3) will resume league play on Sept. 25 (after press time) at Analy, followed by a Thursday, Sept. 27 visit to Cardinal Newman. Match times starting with the frosh are 4/5/6:30 p.m.
“Matches like we had last week are great teaching moments that let us see all the areas we still need to improve on in practice if we plan on competing with teams in the NBL,” Schwarz noted. “We’re looking to get some of our starting players back in a week or two to see how we can play with a fully loaded team.”
