Thursday night’s outing for Bourgade Catholic provided a challenge against the best team in their section, and proved too tough as they fell in three sets to Horizon Honors. 

This match had an important sentiment attached to it as it was Bourgade’s “Pink Out Game.” The game was dedicated to raising money to help breast cancer awareness research, and the gym was decorated with signs of promotion.  This contributed to the feel of the game being different than what it was when these two squads first faced off this season. 

This game was also held with more importance at this point in the season, considering Horizon Honors came in 5-0 in section play, with the Golden Eagles stepping in with a 2-3 conference record.  Not to mention this match was at home for Bourgade, unlike their last meeting.

The first set was competitive as Bourgade fell 20-25, and the second set was even more exciting, as Bourgade almost came away with a win, but fell 24-26.  The third set, however, ended with a lopsided score of 16-25.

Unfortunately for Bourgade, adversity hit with senior captain Erica Sandoval out for this match.

“She’s a great passer, she’s a strong hitter so we were missing that,” said Bourgade head coach Melinda Espinoza.  “Gabreya Garcia stepped up tonight.  Her and our setter Erin Fish were working before the game to make some changes so that they could be more effective up front.”

Garcia was second on her team in kills with seven.  Sophomore outside hitter Bryce Lacey finished with nine kills. 

As for Horizon, Olivia Moran stole the show with her 11 kills, and she most certainly has the respect of head coach Kris Maglunog.

“She’s one of our senior captains, and she’s been on varsity all four years,” Maglunog said.  “The things we did (to give her opportunities) were we made sure that the passes were there and the sets were there so that she had an opportunity to hit.  Our chances of scoring are very high when we have a chance to set her, so we run a lot of plays to move her around.”

Jaque Real is the other senior captain for Bourgade’s team, and she sees the back-to-back losses as possibly a question of focus and mentality.

“Our focus is not really consistent.  We really need to work on that,” Real said  “We were definitely missing some of our key players today, but we really sucked it up during some parts of the game, and definitely in the last parts.  We just have to stay consistent.”

Real mentioned a teammate who was able to step up during the absence of Sandoval.

“We had Natalia Ramirez, who is a sophomore, really step it up in her place.  She was a key player in this match, and I’m really proud of her,” Real said.

Bourgade looks to bounce back against Valley Christian on Monday at 6 p.m.