15 Oct Richmond Knocks Off Kennedy: Oilers Girls Volleyball Advances in Playoffs

Story and photos by Denis Perez-Bravo

The Richmond High School girls’ varsity volleyball team defeated Kennedy High at home during the first round of the Tri-County Athletic League playoffs on Wednesday night.

On Wednesday, having faced off twice before, both teams knew who they were going up against. Despite this, Richmond High began its offensive takeover from the first serve of the game.

“Just by getting all those serves in and getting the points like that, put us higher in the point system so that it would be easier for us to kind of push ourselves through the rest of the game,” Alexis Ponce said.

Richmond won the first set 25 to 19. Then, the Oilers dominated the second set 25 to 5.

In the third, Kennedy stepped up on the last set and almost came back from way behind.

But too many mistakes hindered the near comeback.

Richmond held its lead to finish with a nail-biting 26 to 24 score in the last set.

“The first and last sets were a struggle. I think they got a little too comfortable after that second set,” said Richmond High School volleyball coach Andres Calderon, 24.

Richmond lost its first game of the season to Kennedy three sets to none. Their second matchup ended up going five sets.

“So, you know, it was a gamble going in for the third game,” Calderon said.

Kennedy failed to capitalize on Richmond’s mistakes and at the same time committed mistakes of its own.

“It was individual mistakes that really came together to beat us out,” Kennedy junior Angela Taylor Ortiz said.

Kennedy High School finishes off its TCAL season as the eighth seed with a 5-7 record.

“Our team’s energy came back up and we fought till the end, even though the score was really low,” she said. “I love that about our team.”

Richmond (6-6) advances and will visit Pinole Valley High School girls (11-1) at 6 p.m. Monday for the second round of the TCAL playoffs.