SAN GABRIEL VALLEY LEAGUE VOLLEYBALL Gahr’s “H” factor produces another “W”, Gladiators secure second place after first round

By Loren Kopff

It’s not too often that Sonny Okamoto, the 25-year veteran head coach of the Gahr girls volleyball team, can boast about his team playing a complete match. But following an important sweep over Paramount this past Tuesday night, the Gladiators are looking pretty as they enter the second round of San Gabriel Valley League action.
Gahr’s 25-21, 25-16, 25-17 decision was the 20th victory over the Pirates in the past 21 meetings and pushed the Gladiators to 11-10 overall and 4-1 in the league. Since winning the league in 1998, Gahr has always fought with Paramount for third place and an automatic berth in the postseason. Its Oct. 14 sweep on the road against Warren made the match against Paramount even that more important for momentum going into the final six matches of the regular season.
“I thought it was more competitive last year,” Okamoto said. “When you put things into perspective the biggest this is it depends on where you’re placing at the time. Today, if we would have lost, we would have had a three-way tie for second. The key becomes, was it important to take second place alone?”
“That’s who we usually battle for third place,” said senior middle blocker Erica Willig. “We hear it from our coach that’s our competition every year. This year, of course, our competition is Warren as well. We had to make sure that even though beat Warren, we didn’t say, ‘oh, we have this, we’re going to beat Paramount’.”
Gahr found itself down 16-11 in the first set when Willig’s serving brought the team back, which ended with her second ace of the set. Later on, with the score tied 21-21, Willig posted consecutive kills to give the Gladiators the advantage they needed. Willig, known more for her defensive play all season, finished with eight kills and gives the team an added offensive threat to complement senior middle hitter Chelsea Heyward, sophomore outside hitter Aaliyah Heckard and sophomore middle hitter Jewelyn Sawyer.
“I didn’t get to hit very much in the middle and now I’m getting some swings on the outside,” Willig said. “Sometimes I hit pretty hard and I’ll score but it’s also about playing smart for me, since I can’t jump very high.”
Gahr was clinging to a 13-11 lead in the second set when a kill from Willig gave her team the serve and that’s when Heyward took over. She slammed her fourth kill to that point, then had back to back blocks. Following a Paramount timeout, Willig had another ace and Heyward had another kill to give Gahr a 19-11 lead.
The Pirates thought they had something going in the third set when Melissa Yepez served four straight aces to give her team a 14-13 lead. But once again, Willig’s eighth and final kill of the match ended that rally. Then with the score at 15-15, a kill from Heyward gave Willig the serve and she responded with her fourth ace of the match. But the match wasn’t sealed until senior setter Elyse Quiones scored three of her team’s final five points with quick dumps which caught the Pirates off guard. Quiones picked up half a dozen kills but had a stellar night distributing the ball to Heckard (18 kills), Heyward (12 kills), Sawyer (eight kills) and Willig.
“When you’re athletic, you read things that are going to come at you,” Okamoto said. “We actually picked up balls tonight. Elyse did a great job and she finally ended the match on a dump that I needed, which I called a couple of times tonight. Everybody had to play and they all did a good job.
“Tonight, I thought we did a very good job of moving the balls; controlling the balls,” Okamoto added. “We gave Aaliyah the chance to swing and score and she did her job. I thought they were a scrappy team on the other side. The thing that hurt them is they don’t have the middles like we have. Our middles actually controlled the net a little bit.”
Coming into the season, Okamoto knew the bulk of his scoring would come from Heyward. What he didn’t know was that Heckard, in her first year on the varsity squad, would be as equal as a contributor. In fact, she has led the team in kills in a few matches thus far and when she hasn’t, she’s been right with Heyward for the team lead. Against Santa Monica last Saturday in the Marlborough Tournament, Heckard had 11 of Gahr’s 41 points in a two-set loss. Later in the day, she had six kills out of Gahr’s 25 points in a two-set loss to Marlborough.
“The concern I have is to try to make her an all-around player,” Okamoto said. “I don’t have her passing in the game yet, but I’m working on that slowly so she can play all the way around the whole time. For Aaliyah to be where she’s at, Elyse has to giver hittable balls and Elyse is doing that a lot better than the very beginning of the year.”
Gahr hosted league leading Downey on Oct. 21 and will visit the league’s two bottom feeders, Dominguez and Lynwood, on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. The rematch with Paramount will be on Nov. 4 on the road and could, once again, decide third place. When Gahr swept Warren, it was just the fourth win on Warren’s court in the past 13 meetings and snapped a five-match losing streak to the Bears. In the past 25 meetings, Gahr has defeated Warren eight times.
“I think that was really important because it gave us some confidence,” Willig said of the win at Warren. “I think our team has two different levels of confidence.”
“Playoffs feel good,” Okamoto said. “I’m just comfortable with getting to the playoffs. I told the girls not to be satisfied [with second place]. If you’re satisfied, then things won’t happen to the best of their knowledge.”