EAGLES SURGE PAST ROYALS, SECURE A SHOT AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP

By Carmen Gogue

After experiencing two losses at the hands of the second seeded Notre Dame Royals during the regular season, the third seeded Harvest Eagles were hungry for redemption fueling a straight sets victory 25-20, 25-23, 25-16 Friday evening down at the Talofofo school punching their ticket to the IIAAG Boys Volleyball Championship match.

Driving the Eagles on offense were outside hitters Devin Paulin and Jack Keith. Paulin recorded seven kills and Keith rolled right behind with six.

“Our teamwork and our consistency with playing our best over all really pushed us through tonight.”

– Eagles Outside Hitter Devin Paulin

On the opposing end Masato Rabago, Daryl Peredo, and Caleb Pereda were the forefront of the Royals offense. Rabago registered 10 kills, Peredo with nine and Pereda at seven.

First Set

As the Royals started the first set off serving, a serve shot out by Rabago for an error seemed to set the tone until Peredo caught fire with two back-to-back kills on the right side lifting up the energy and the home crowd. The Eagles however, responded right after with a big kill from Tai Castro at the middle to tie up 2-2. Rabago bounced back from his serving error with a huge kill from the back row to bring ND up 3-2.

Continuing to exchange points for the remainder of the set, it was errors that stopped the Royals in their tracks to a 25-20 first set loss. Harvest controlled their errors to six while ND suffered 14.

Second Set

Castro opened up the second set with another towering kill for the Eagles but the Royals quickly answered with a kill from Pereda to tie 1-1. An Eagles carry violation gave the Royals a one-point lead and with Peredo still hot, he flew in for a hammering kill on the right side to increase the score to 3-1. Alike to the first set, both teams were neck in neck until four consecutive ND errors put Harvest at a 12-8 lead.

Keith found his swing hitting four instrumental kills with Paulin slamming three to stay on track with their opponents strong hitting lineup and even though the Royals recorded more kills than the Eagles another set filled with errors spoiled their chance at a second set win. The Eagles continued to manage their errors with only four in comparison to the Royals 15 to take the second set 25-23.

Third Set

In the third set, the Royals were still haunted by mistakes despite Rabago soaring in for epic kills to pick his team up. Jacob Ji stepped up for the Eagles nailing four kills with the support of Paulin and Keith. Middle blocker Castro snatched the third set with a wicked block on Rabago to end the game 25-16. ND committed 16 mistakes with Harvest only making eight.

Keith shares what worked best for the Eagles in tonight’s matchup, “we minimized our errors a lot tonight. Last game, when they [ND] took the third set from us after we won the first two, we had made 18 errors and basically gave it to them. We’ve got more consistent since that game, and we weren’t going to be stopped”.

The Eagles will play the defending champions Father Duenas Friars in the Championship match on Tuesday, May 14. The location and time is TBD.

PHOTO GALLERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY: