Benicia High’s varsity volleyball team rebounded from a sluggish start and beat host Bethel on Thursday, 21-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-17, in the Solano County Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

Fired up by its raucous home crowd, Bethel played out of its mind in the opening set, which only seemed to fire up Benicia.

“It was an exciting match,” said Benicia head coach Jamie Hadenfeldt. “There was a lot of energy in the gym. After we dropped the first set, I think we realized that the season has started and if we want to pick up wins, we have to work hard. No one’s going to just hand anything to us. We’re always gonna be that team that everyone wants to beat, and sometimes that’s a difficult position to be in.”

Playing without usual starting setter Kara Fisher, the Lady Panthers quickly regrouped and controlled the remainder of the match. An ace and a kill by Jessica Blakeman and a pair of kills by Kyianna Collins gave Benicia a 10-7 lead in the second set. Sara McBride added four kills in the set as the Lady Panthers used a 10-2 run to take over.

“I was happy to see our girls get challenged and regroup and start focusing,” Hadenfeldt said. “They really turned it around and went to work.”

Blakeman got hot in the third set, ripping off seven kills to put Bethel on its heels. Benicia then opened the fourth set on a 6-1 run thanks to a pair of kills by Reagan Lewis and never looked back.

Blakeman finished with a team-high 18 kills to go with 10 digs, two aces and one block. McBride and Emily Maher each added 10 kills while Collins finished with three blocks.

Sophomore Amanda Ajari filled in for Fisher at setter and had a solid night with 35 assists, three aces and 12 digs. Natalie Sluga had four aces and 11 digs, Taylor Lewis had eight digs and two aces, and Joy Fukushma had six digs.

“We were really scrappy and I was really impressed with how hard we worked to keep plays alive,” Hadenfeldt said. “There was a lot of good out-of-system play.”

Benicia hosts Vallejo on Tuesday.

Sharing is caring!