High School volleyball is a game of momentum. From set to set or point to point, it can go the way of an errant pass, and return just as quickly with a lucky bounce of the ball. So, how does a team maintain the elusive “mo”? It’s not rocket science—but even if it was, they’d be covered.
In the Moore League, the Wilson Bruins have been a shining example of consistency, praised by opposing coaches for rarely (if ever) playing a bad set. Winners of six of the last seven league titles, this year’s squad has only dropped one set while going 12-0 in league play, led by seven sensational seniors who know everything about consistency. All year long, their coach has given them the credit for steering an even course.
“Some people say this game is 80% mental,” WIlson coach Susan Pescar told us earlier this season. “I think it’s probably more like 90%.”
In the final week of league play, Pescar’s team took on the second and third best teams in the Moore League (and ninth and tenth best teams in the CIF Southern Section) in Poly and Lakewood.
Hosting Poly on Senior Night, Wilson battled with the young but talented Jackrabbits. The two teams traded 8-3 runs to tie it at 19, but two big blocks from Amanda Pacheco and Kellie Culbertson gave the Bruins the first set victory. After that, it was all Bruins as they held the Jackrabbits to 24 points in the final two sets as Pacheco, Culbertson, and Deveney Pula dominated the net.
For Wilson to continue to dominate, middle blocker and captain Pacheco is the key.
“She’s really stepped it up this season,” said Pescar of Pacheco, who among other honors this season was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions. “You can tell that she decided, ‘You know what? This is my senior year—come watch me.’ It’s going to be tough to see her leave.”
Pacheco, a native of Long Beach, has been playing volleyball since her days at Stanford Middle School. But sports were never a priority for the six-foot senior. Over the summer, Pacheco skipped volleyball camp and a trip to Hawaii in order to continue her internship at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
“Academics come first,” says Pacheco. “I want to keep playing volleyball, but I just used it as a tool to get into the schools I wanted.”
The tool worked, and this California girl will be headed east to the Ivy League and the University of Pennsylvania, where she wants to major in engineering and work with alternative fuels.
“My mom keeps bugging me that, once I’m done, I have to come back to California. I told her if she tells me again, I just might stay out there.”
Jokes aside, when you mention CIF and the fact that these seniors are playing their last games together, Pacheco and her teammates get very serious. And looking at them from the other side of the net, they are very scary, as well.
Most good teams have a few big hitters on the outside. Wilson has four swinging arms that can change any game. Also headed to the Ivy League is outside hitter Deveney Pula, a powerful player who recently earned a scholarship to Cornell University. She’ll make history by becoming the first Samoan to play for the Big Red’s volleyball program. Showing the breadth of Wilson’s academic prowess, Pula passed on other scholarships in order to attend Cornell, where she’ll be an engineering student. In addition to Pula’s strength, fellow senior Janisa Johnson uses her incomparable vertical leap to pick her spots. Culbertson is the most well rounded player on the team, and the lefty Kellie Woolever has matured nicely as the season draws to a close.
You could really see Woolever come into her own against Lakewood last week, in the final Moore League game of the season. She finished with seven kills to go along with 25 assists and Culbertson added 13 kills, 4 blocks, and 13 digs.
But all those athletes on the outside make Wilson good. Pacheco makes Wilson dominate.
A force in the middle, she scored four of Wilson’s first six points against Lakewood. That’s all she needs to do. As soon as she gets involved, and gets into a rhythm, it changes the opponents’ defense. When they don’t adjust, Pacheco will continue to score at will. When teams inevitably crash down towards the middle to slow down the quick attack, that’s when the big swings come from the outside. Like a good boxer, Pacheco is the stiff jab, and those talented outside hitters are the knockout blows.
And should somebody throw a new scheme at them that they can’t get around, watch Pacheco and Pula—they just might invent something right there on the court. Wilson begins their CIF campaign tonight, hosting Palos Verdes at 7pm. Go watch them.