GIRLS VOLLEYBALL: Cerritos passes first major test, remains undefeated after defeating Gahr

By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X

In his first 11 seasons as the head coach for the Cerritos High girls volleyball team, David Cuthbert has won a season-opener eight times, including beginning with four straight wins four times. But now, the Dons are off to their best start since opening the 2016 season with eight straight victories and the latest win came in their biggest test thus far.

Facing a Gahr High team that ventured into hostile territory with a 4-1 mark, Cerritos rallied from a big deficit in the first set and rode that momentum to a 25-23, 25-13, 15-25, 25-17 win over the Gladiators last Thursday in front of a jam packed and raucous Cerritos gymnasium, improving to 6-0.

“I said to [Gahr head coach Charity Dennis] at the end, the football game tomorrow; the atmosphere will not come close to that [of the volleyball match],” said Cuthbert. “Because today, that was two really good teams really competing; really going at it. We kind of won the second set easy, and they turned around and put together a really great [third] set.”

“It was definitely a fun atmosphere,” said Dennis. “Every time we play Cerritos, our fans come out and their fans come out. It’s such a fun environment, so we want to say thank you to our fans and our supporters. They really showed out and showed up today. Despite the outcome, they were supportive all the way through.”

Cerritos has now won five straight matches over Gahr and nine out of the last 10 meetings dating back to 2017. But this was also the first real test for both squads this season. The combined record of the first five opponents for Cerritos prior to hosting its city rivals was 9-26 with Bellflower High and California High being winless while the combined record of Gahr’s first five foes was 13-23.

Gahr seemed to be in control of the first set, jumping out to leads of 13-7, 16-11 and 20-13 after three straight aces from junior defensive specialist Jayden Sydenham. But a serving error turned the ball over to the Dons and sophomore middle blocker Miranda Martinez returned the favor, getting a pair of aces after a kill from junior outside hitter Ceana Merino, who along with sophomore setter Kylie Cruz sang the national anthem prior to the match.

After the Gladiators picked up a point on a serving error, the Dons tied the match at 21-21 on kills from Merino, junior middle blocker Kaylin Cho, sophomore outside hitter Ally Veron, a lift violation and a block from Cho.

“With our girls this year, we talked about…in the moment when we’re struggling, we have certain behaviors that we want the kids to commit to, and then we don’t worry about the outcome,” said Cuthbert. “If we’re doing these things, it’s always going to give us a chance. Anytime you get a great comeback like that, we’re going to definitely get some momentum going into the second set.”

“It was very frustrating,” said Dennis of her team blowing a seven-point advantage late. “It was mental errors for us, so we allowed them to go on the run. It was just our breakdown in our fundamentals, in our mechanics; we weren’t cohesive towards the end. We broke down, but we’re improving and getting better.”

Cerritos carried that burst of energy into the second set and after getting her sixth kill of the match, Veron served eight straight points to put it out of reach. Included in that scoring spree were four aces, another kill and blocks from Cho and 6’1” junior middle blocker Yuming Zhang.

But Gahr turned the tables around in the third set and despite ties at 4-4, 9-9 and 12-12, never trailed. Junior opposite hitter Raenna Sousa posted four kills in the set while sophomore outside hitter Violet Hackworth added three, equaling the total she had in the second set. The fourth kill of the match from senior outside hitter Genesis Islas gave the Gladiators the lead for good at 13-12 and that was immediately followed by a block from senior opposite Tzarie Paalam.

After a point from Cerritos, Paalam’s fifth kill gave the serve to senior middle blocker Jessalyn Ecevedo where she had a pair of aces, a kill from Sousa and a violation to put the set out of reach.

“We did a good job coming into the third set,” said Dennis. “It’s just they have to talk themselves…I was out of that timeout not sure exactly what all was said. But they came out fired up and ready to go.”

“We had a rough start to that [set]; that gave them a nice cushion to begin with,” said Cuthbert. “But none of these kids need any motivation when it’s Gahr-Cerritos. That’s always going to be a fun environment. They’re too good of a team to just stay down. So, we knew they were going to come back and luckily for us, we managed to step up in that fourth set.”

That would mark the first time the Dons had lost a set in the season, and they made sure not to make it a second one as they scored the first three points of the fourth set, eventually opening a 12-6 lead and then an 18-8 advantage. Gahr had nine kills in the set, five coming from Hackworth and three more from Sousa while Cho, Martinez and Veron all combined for 11 of the 13 kills Cerritos had in the fourth set.

“I thought we had that [momentum] too,” said Dennis. “We have fighters on the team. They’re young, but they’re fighters. I don’t think it was ever out of reach for us. It was just point for point until eventually Cerritos went on a run.”

Hackworth led all players with 12 kills while Sousa and Paalam followed with 10 and six kills, respectively. Paalam also had five aces while freshman libero Kylee Shaver added four aces. Cerritos was paced by Veron (11 kills, six aces, one block), Martinez (10 kills, four aces, two blocks), Merino (nine kills, two aces), Cho (eight kills, three blocks), Cruz (22 assists, seven aces) and sophomore setter Leah Hidalgo (19 assists).

“She’s a captain this year, so she’s been a leader since her freshman year,” said Dennis of Hackworth. “She’s really stepped into her role this year in terms of her energy. She’s extremely consistent; we can rely on her as a player and it’s such a special thing to have at such a young age. I’m super excited to see what all she accomplishes in her career.”

“I think Kaylin is the missing piece for us,” said Cuthbert. “The last few years, we really needed a big strong blocker on the right side, and Kaylin gives us that. She played middle for us last year, then transferred to the right side. She changes the dynamic of how we defend when we have that big blocker out there.”

Cerritos went 18-12 last season and finished in second place in the 605 League for the first time since the league was formed. Cuthbert has eight returning players, none of whom are seniors, and seven first-time varsity players with five being seniors.

“They’re having fun,” said Cuthbert. “It’s a weird situation because last year, we had four freshmen playing a lot of minutes and now they’re sophomores, but they have some experience. Although those players are grown up, we got younger because we have so many new players on our roster this year.”

After facing La Mirada High at the beginning of the week, Cerritos will be off until travelling to John Glenn High on Sept. 12 for the 605 League opener. Meanwhile, Gahr bounced back and swept Bell Gardens High 28-26, 25-16, 25-15 last Friday to get to 5-2. The Gladiators hosted Santa Fe High on Sept. 4 and will participate in the Whittier Tournament Friday and Saturday before going to La Serna High on Tuesday and hosting Lynwood High two days later in the Mid-Cities League opener.

“I think this is a big test of managing momentums,” said Dennis. “We talked about that outside [after the match]. We can’t be super high and expect not to crash down. You have to stay leveled and consistent. I think that will be a great test heading into league and into playoffs after that.”

“We just have to keep the effort in practice; just make sure that regardless of who we play and where we play that webring that type of intensity to the game,” said Cuthbert. “We have things to work on. I’m really, really pleased with that win today, but we have some stuff to work on.”