Kaiser sweeps past Farrington on Senior Night


Kaiser's Jon Stanley puts down a kill attempt against Farrington. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Led by a combined 10 kills and 6 blocks by the duo of Jon Stanley and Nate Hohman, Kaiser improved to 7-4 in OIA Eastern Division play with a sweep of Farrington on Senior Night.

Early on it was the Stanley show. The freshman outside hitter chimed in on 3 of the first 4 points scored by the Cougars in the match, and added a service ace to push the margin to 11-7 at the midway point of the opening set.

"Jon is such a critical part of our team, we rely on him for a lot of our outside power," said Hohman.

The lead ballooned to nine at 21-12 on a Hohman ace and it appeared the Cougars were running away in set one, but the Govs fought back down the stretch, trimming the margin to 21-16 before Hohman put down a kill in the right corner to give Kaiser the set, 25-18.

Farrington hung tough in the second, with Apelu Fiu and Xaiver Paleafei shouldering the load for the Govs in the second, notching three kills each in a set that had the Govs holding a two-point lead in the late stages.

But Hohman and Stanley came up big for Kaiser down the stretch to prevent a decisive third set. The senior middle's fourth block of the evening was his biggest, edging the Cougars ahead 19-18. Hohman added four kills and two aces in the match.

"If we don't have a good middle, we don't have their middle going up with them," said Stanley. "So its easier for the outsides and opposites, because we have one-on-ones."

And that middle presence paid dividends in the outcomes, as the six-foot-one Stanley responded in the waning points of the second set with a kill to trim the lead to 1, and then took a set from the left wing and slammed it down past the single block for the match winner.

Setter Chris Johnston was steady all game running the offense for the Cougars, and the senior also came up with a huge ace to give the home team the lead for good in the second at 23-22.

"We've been working on a new offense and even though plays weren't there, I wanted the players to run the plays," said Kaiser head coach Michael Smyrychynski."It might have looked a little sloppy at times, but for the most part we were trying to work some stuff out."



Reach Brien Ing at [email protected].