Kern Valley’s Jessie Bunting snaps the wrist as she connects for an attempted kill in the match versus Cal City. Submitted photos.
Kern Valley earns top seed in Division V CIF playoffs
The Lady Broncs varsity volleyball team closed out the regular season this past week. Kern Valley split the matches as they defeated the Lady Roadrunners of Rosamond in straight sets. They would drop the marathon decision versus Cal City in five sets.
They will now turn their focus to the CIF Division V playoffs. They opened up the playoffs at home as the No. 1 seed in the division. They started the run to a CIF title against the Chavez Lady Titans. Kern Valley on the year was 19-11 overall. In the High Desert League, the Lady Broncs finished with an 11-3 mark. That was good for sole possession of second place. Chavez, from Delano finished the year with a record of 9-15 overall. They were 4-8 in the South Sequoia League in fifth place. When they come to take on Kern Valley, they arrive with a 2-6 record away from their home court.
Heading into the CIF Playoffs, head coach Jamie Duran said, “The Lady Broncs are looking ahead as we start playoffs this week. The girls are excited about our home match Tuesday. They’re ready to get to work at practice.”
As the Lady Broncs ended the regular season, they entertained both Rosamond and Cal City on their home court in both matches. Kern Valley took control in the match versus Rosamond early on and never looked back. They won the opening set 25-14. They made it 2-0 in set wins by the score of 25-20. They would close out the match with a 25-17 win in the third set. As it has all season, the Lady Broncs have put the ball in play to put the pressure on their opponents. They only missed two serves in this match and delivered 40 serves in play. As a team, they delivered just six serving aces versus the Lady Roadrunners.
Leading the way in service aces for Kern Valley was Ava Elliott with three. Jayda Bushling delivered a pair of aces, while Ruby Hawkins wrapped up the aces with one. Hawkins made her mark in the kills department. She was the team leader with 15. She was followed by Jessie Bunting with eight kills. Elliott recorded a pair of kills, while Paisley Wilkins was credited with one kill.
Turning to the defense, the Lady Broncs delivered as they came together and made sure the offense flowed through the defense. Hawkins recorded the lone block at the net. Kern Valley totaled 24 digs in the match. Bushling topped the chart with 12. Elliott recorded eight digs, while Wilkins had two. Bunting and Hawking contributed one dig apiece. All those digs resulted in assists for the offense to make the play. Wilkins was on her game as she was credited with 24 assists. Bushling had one assist in the match.
Two days later the Lady Ravens of Cal City came to town. Kern Valley started strong on as they honored their senior players. They took control of the match by winning the first two sets. In the first set, the Lady Broncs won 15-13. They continued to dominate as they grabbed a 2-0 lead in sets by winning 25-14. From that point on it was all Cal City as they extended the match by taking the third set 25-21. The fourth set was a battle that saw the Lady Ravens hold and collect the 26-24 win to send it to the decider. It was another back-and-forth game that went the way of Cal City. The final score was 15-12 and that was the deciding factor in Kern Valley dropping the match three sets to two.
The Lady Broncs had another good day at the service line. They delivered 48 serves with just one error. They were credited with three aces and 37 kills in the match. Elliott had a pair of service aces, while Bushling delivered one serving ace. The kills race in the match was a close one for Kern Valley. Hawkins led the team with a whopping 18 kills. Bunting followed closely as she finished with 17. Elliott capped the kills with two.
It was another strong game from the Lady Broncs defense as they had six blocks at the net. They were led by Bunting who was credited with four blocks. Hawkins recorded a pair of blocks for the Kern Valley squad. Bushling led the way in digs with 29. Elliott had 15, while Wilkins finished with a baker’s dozen 13. Hawkins finished with two digs. Wilkins control the assists as she delivered 34 to lead the Lady Broncs. Bunting was credited with one assist to close out the defensive stats for the match.
Duran said, “The Lady Broncs had a good week. Against Rosamond, we came out and stayed consistent in play and energy. Our back row made sure to take care of the first touch and allowed Paisley (Wilkins) to run a dynamic offense.” Continuing on she commented on the Cal City match by saying, “Against Cal City we came out on fire the first two sets. Jessie (Bunting) and Ruby (Hawkins) were especially important in those two sets. The last three sets, unfortunately we played with lower energy and didn’t take care of the fundamentals as we normally do.”
