By Asha Marie Robles

With the return of super athlete Destiny Castro, the Notre Dame Royals defeated the untouched Academy Cougars in a two set match 25-23, 25-20, improving their record to 3-1 and handing the Cougars their first loss and leaving them with a record of 2-1.

“It’s good to be back, while I was off island for basketball all I wanted to do was play volleyball, so it’s a good feeling to be back and win tonight’s game,” said Castro. The junior sensation spent the last two weeks in Nanjing, China representing Guam in the 3×3 women’s basketball team in the Youth Olympic Games.

Castro was instrumental in the win as she led her team in kills and passes. Royals Coach Mike Rabago states that with the return of Castro, the entire team seemed to play with more confidence, “They just needed her spark.”

Cougars Cyndi Scott finds a hole through the Royal defense in their big rivalry game Saturday night that knocked Academy out of the unbeaten ranks (Photo by Joey Blas)

The Royals took an early lead in the first set behind unstoppable serves by Demie Brennan, putting her team up to 3-0, but with an error by the Royals, their streak stopped. However, Caley Chargualaf made a few aces bringing her team up to 7-1.

The Cougars on the other hand wouldn’t give in that easily as Cyndi Scott made several aces and unpassable serves to not only catch up with the Royals, but to gain the lead for the first time at 8-7.

From there on out, points were back and forth between teams, but with better passing and control by the Royals, they took the first set at close score of 25-23. Castro ended the set with a kill which found its way through a Cougar block.

Having won the first set, the Royals were unstoppable during the second as they were in the lead from beginning to end, taking the second set at 25-20. The Royals had several kills by Castro and Muneka Taisipic giving them the 7-4 lead. The Cougars had a few great kills and blocks by Scott which had them trail behind the Royals at 9-8. However, from there on out the Royals would leave the Cougars behind with aces and well placed serves from Taisipic, Castro and Paris Blas.

The return of Destiny Castro helped spark the Royals over the Cougars. Castro attacks her opponents from the backcourt. (Photo by Joey Blas)

Leading 19-12, the Cougars slowly started catching up with kills and serves by Scott, getting the score to a close 23-20, but from there the Royals wouldn’t let them score anymore and won the set by a hard spike from Tammi Wusstig, which the Cougars wouldn’t put back over the net leaving the final score at 25-20.

Although Castro played a key role in tonight’s win, she says, “It was my team that got me to make the kills. It took great passing to get great sets which lead to making great kills and we just had good team work.”

Other Games

Okkodo def. Sanchez 25-20, 25-13

St. John’s def. JFK 25-19, 25-20

Harvest def. St. Paul 25-11, 25-23

Guam High def. GAA 22-25, 28-26, 25-13

Junior Varsity

Okkodo def. Sanchez in 3 sets

St. John’s def. JFK 25-12, 25-20

Academy def. Notre Dame 25-15, 25-16

Harvest def. St. Paul 25-19, 25-22

St. Thomas def. Southern 17-25, 25-6, 25-18