LADY PANTHERS (from left) Natalie Sluga, Darian Dudley, Jessica Blakeman and Reagan Lewis celebrate a point against St. Patrick-St. Vincent on Wednesday.

Playing against each other for the first time in more than two years, Benicia High’s varsity volleyball team managed to sweep visiting St. Patrick-St. Vincent High, 25-18, 25-18, 25-21, in a non-league match Wednesday.

It was the first meeting between the two local rivals since the opening match of the 2014 season, which Benicia also won in a sweep.

“They’re our rivals and obviously we wanted to beat them,” said Benicia senior Jessica Blakeman, who led the Lady Panthers with 13 kills and 12 digs. “It was fun but I thought it would be more challenging.”

“I knew our seniors really wanted to beat them,” said SPSV freshman Carolina Gallagher, who led the Lady Bruins with 13 kills and seven digs. “We could have played a lot better. I think our nerves were showing.”

The Lady Bruins (12-8) got off to a strong start but couldn’t sustain it due to several unforced errors, including serving into the net and letting balls drop into the corners.

Unforced errors definitely killed us,” complained SPSV head coach Danette Domecus. “We started out passing the best we’ve done all season but then we’d make unforced errors. When the other team’s ahead and you’re giving up points on your serve, it’s hard to catch up.”

Tied midway through the second set, Benicia libero Joy Fukushima went on a long service run that gave the Lady Panthers an 18-13 lead. Some big kills by Blakeman and nice serving by Taylor Lewis helped Benicia close out the set.

“Our defense was good and we played really well,” Blakeman said.

“We focused on the small things and didn’t make a lot of errors,” said Benicia head coach Jamiei Hadenfeldt. “Jessica did a good job of showing leadership and pulling everybody together.”

SPSV had an early lead in the third set but an ace by Lewis and strong serving by Blakeman put Benicia ahead 18-10. The Lady Panthers led by as much as 23-12 until SPSV’s Kamryn Mitchell got hot at the service line and rolled off eight straight points to make it 23-20. But just when it looked like the Lady Bruins were ready to take over, a serve into the net killed the rally and Benicia managed to close out the match.

It was a big win psychologically for the Lady Panthers (5-2), who lost in straight sets to Vanden the night before.

“They did a good job of staying focused after our loss at Vanden on Tuesday,” Hadenfeldt said. “They jumped right into the match and came together as a team.”

Emily Maher had five kills and Amanda Ajari had 15 assists for the Lady Panthers. Other standouts for Benicia included Natalie Sluga (15 digs, seven assists), Ramona Glatzel (eight digs) and Semele Hargis (three blocks).

Mitchell finished with three kills, three aces, 10 assists and 10 digs for the Lady Bruins, who host Berkeley in a non-league match on Friday night. Makahla Bolko had five kills and four digs, Candice Turk had five kills, Chloe Ortega added 13 assists and nine digs, and Shaina Snyder finished with 14 digs.

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