WATSONVILLE—It was encouraging for Watsonville High boys’ volleyball coach Crystal Cornejo-Perez to have a highly-motivated team this season.
The only thing was she wasn’t expecting them to set the bar so high, especially during her first season with the program.
But the Wildcatz were fired up coming into the year, and have hopes of making a deep run in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“It’s a pretty big goal for them this year,” Cornejo-Perez said. “So, we’re working for it.”
Senior setter Angel Casillas finished with nine aces for the Wildcatz in a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 31-29) victory over Pajaro Valley High on Monday.
Junior outside/opposite hitter Francisco Garcia had two kills for Watsonville, which improved to 2-0 in league play and owns a 3-3 overall record.
Casillas and middle/outside Andy Patino helped lead the way to a win in their league-opener against Alvarez High on March 23.
“It was a pretty important game for them, they wanted to start the [league] season strong,” Cornejo-Perez said.
Patino said he knew how important it was to win their Pacific Coast Athletic League Mission division opener.
“If you don’t win the first one, the second one gets harder,” he said.
Apart from the team goals, Patino set some for himself coming into the season. That includes bringing back some hardware for the trophy case.
“It’s our last year, we have to,” he said. “There’s no excuses. We gotta train hard and we gotta win it.”
Patino said the chemistry has been there since this group began playing together their freshman season. He added that this year’s Wildcatz squad means business, but they’re having fun at the same time.
“We just want to play really bad, we want to win,” he said.
Watsonville’s senior-laden squad features Andrew Cervantes, Bryan Aguilera, Isai Garcia, Kevin Rosales, Dominic Hernandez, Nico Felix and Isaak Vargas.
The junior class is made up of Garcia, Isaac Rodriguez and Diego Banuelos.
Casillas said the connection between the players is natural because they’re also friends outside of school. He calls it their “volleyball family” and the chemistry makes things a lot easier during the games.
“It’s all heart right now,” Casillas said about the team’s recent success. “We didn’t think we were going to have this season, but it’s all heart. I really think we can make CCS, I really do.”
Cornejo-Perez said that the team’s resiliency makes it capable of making a deep run in the playoffs. She added that they’ve come a long way since the first day of open gym tryouts.
“They weren’t really aware of what rotations were, like in receiving, and a lot of their hitting was off, as in timing,” she said. “They’ve definitely improved as a team and individuals, and it’s been great.”
Casillas said that it’s going to take teamwork and leaving it all out on court in order to make a postseason run.
“This year is all CCS for me,” he said. “It’s my last year, I’m a senior, so this year we gotta get it. We’re going to get it.”
The Wildcatz will host Hill High (3-8) in a non-league contest on Friday at 5pm.
