Bonita’s Ketchup Kids Squeeze Out Victory, 3-1

Bonita's ketchup kids looked much relieved after pulling out another victory.

If the Bonita varsity volleyball team were a condiment, it would be a bottle of ketchup.

“We love to play catch-up,” said head coach Adriana Contreras after Bonita defeated Diamond Bar 3-1, despite not taking its first lead until 25-24 of the second set.

In the Bearcats’ defense, they came in fatigued. Since a week ago Tuesday, when they played San Dimas, they have played a dozen different schools. They have had only two open days in the last 10. “We were tired,” Contreras added, “but we stuck together.”

In the first game, Bonita trailed by as many seven points (21-14) before rallying to just one point behind, 24-23, before Diamond Bar’s Kathleen Torres’ spiked Bonita’s hope of a comeback in the Brahmas’ 25-23 win.

In game 2, Diamond Bar again popped out to an early lead, going up 10-5 and extending that lead to 16-9 before Bonita started to rally. Helping the Bearcats get untracked were their senior captains Ashley Maxfeldt and Katie Kirby. Time after time, Kirby’s kills were finding the mark after perfect sets by Maxfeldt. After Briana Kennedy scored for Bonita to help the Bearcats edge to within a point, 19-18, the crowd saw the match’s best point as the two teams exhaustively battled to keep the ball in play before Diamond Bar’s Torres struck the winning point to put the Brahmas up, 20-18.

When Bonita failed to earn that must-have point, it looked as if just wasn’t going to be the Bearcats night. But then after a block by Victoria Dennis and an outstanding serve by Melissa Katherman, Bonita tied the game at 20-20. Then after a Diamond Bar time-out, the Brahmas strung together three straight points and appeared poised for their second straight win. But after kills by Dennis and Kirby and an excellent serve from Kassandra Mejia, Bonita tied it again at 23-23. Kirby got the Bearcats even again at 24 with a kill before Bonita won the final two points, the last on a call at the net that went Bonita’s way.

Bonita had to run the gauntlet early to get the result it desired.

The Bonita girls had played practically an hour and had led just once that entire time, but still had managed a 1-1 tie. With new wind in their sails, the Bearcats cruised to 25-17 and 25-18 victories. In game 3, they went wire to wire repelling a couple of short Diamond Bar runs while getting great play from Madison Zylstra, Hannah Rioseco and their librero Rebecca Aguilera. In game 4, Bonita trailed early before evening the match at 12-12 on a kill by Dennis. From that point, Bonita simply brought too much firepower and won going away, 25-18.

“We were tired,” Contreras said about her freshly minted 10-2 team. “You saw we got a little frustrated, but we pulled together and overcame our early struggles.

Bonita will enjoy a much-deserved break before jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan on Sept. 28 to face defending CIF champion Los Altos in Hacienda Heights.