Providence boys’ volleyball goes limit to top Glendale
BURBANK — There are still plenty of league matches remaining for the Providence High and Glendale boys’ volleyball teams.
The Pioneers and Nitros took a break from competing in their respective leagues and met in a nonleague contest Monday at Providence. With Zack Pikhart leading the charge, Providence turned back Glendale in a dramatic contest.
Pikhart finished with 13 kills, 15 assists and four blocks to power Providence to a 25-7, 17-25, 25-16, 19-25, 15-9 victory.
“It’s a match that will be a good test for us and just kept going back and forth,” said Pikhart, a senior opposite hitter. “There was a lot of energy out there and we just needed to regain our focus, especially entering the fifth set.
“We were able to come back and pick up our energy when we needed to. We have a good team. We just need to keep that energy going, especially in our [Liberty League] matches.”
Providence (11-2) overcame a 4-1 deficit in the deciding set and used a 9-2 run to take a 10-6 lead. Pikhart had three kills in that stretch to ignite the Pioneers, who are ranked ninth in CIF Southern Section Division IV.
Glendale, which competes in the Pacific League, couldn’t get any closer than 12-9 on a kill by Francisco Olvera-Sanchez (14 kills). Providence wrapped up the win on an ace from Gerald Martin.
“It’s always great to get the win, but we should have taken it earlier,” said Providence Coach Nicole Brouillard, who received 23 assists from Martin and 25 digs from Westan Tengan. “We’ve been working on learning how to close out games and we weren’t able to do that right away. I liked the way we came back early in the fifth set and closed it out.
“You get confidence when you can do that. We have a bunch of league games left, so we can learn from this and know we have to be ready right away.”
Providence dominated the first set, coasting to an 18-4 lead on a kill by Michael Zwart. The Pioneers rattled off 10 straight points to make it 18-4 and allowed the Nitros just three points the rest of the way.
“That was a very good run,” Brouillard said. “We came out and played strong defense and capitalized on some of their mistakes. And we served hard.”
Glendale ended the second set on an 8-1 run to tie it at one set each. Olvera-Sanchez had two blocks and two kills during the run and teammate Akili Ligons added two kills.
Nick Tidik recorded a block to give the Pioneers a 17-10 lead in the third set. A kill by Pikhart concluded the stanza.
The Nitros jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the fourth set and extended it to 20-12 on a block by Olvera-Sanchez (four blocks). William Phan and Albert Balekjian later added kills to knot it at two sets apiece.
“I liked the way we played in the fourth set,” Glendale coach Andy Cheng said. “We played well in the two sets we won, but we have to do a better job at putting things together in each set to have a chance at winning. That’s something we’ve been working on throughout the season.
“We got up, 4-1, in the last set and then we just completely lost our focus.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
