'We wanted to get back at them.' Livesay, GV in line for another CCC championship.

Bryan Livesay has an aggressive high-five. When the Golden Valley junior celebrates a point it looks like he's trying to rip off the arm of his teammates.

"Oh yeah, it's a rush when we score a point," Livesay said. "We ride off that emotion."

The Livesay and the Golden Valley boys volleyball team had plenty to celebrate on Thursday night as they dominated Buhach Colony 25-21, 25-19, 25-18 in the Thunder Dome. The win gives the Cougars (24-9 overall, 9-2 Central California Conference) sole possession of first place in the conference with one game left.

The two teams can still end up with a co-championship if they both win out. Buhach Colony still has games left with El Capitan and Merced. By defeating the Thunder two out of three games in CCC play, the Cougars own the tie-breaker over BC, which would give Golden Valley the CCC’s top seed for the playoffs.

"After losing to them the first time we came back here like we were angry," Livesay said. "We wanted to get back at them. We had a really good practice (Wednesday). We came in aggressive. We really wanted to win."

The Cougars took it to Buhach Colony from the start. Golden Valley controlled the net and kept the pressure on the Thunder. Buhach Colony didn't help itself with poor serves and hitting errors.

The Cougars may have emerged from their late-season funk just in time to win a second straight CCC championship and in time to make a postseason run.

"The last month we haven't been playing very well," said Golden Valley coach Scott Livesay. "I haven't been coaching very well. We had our first good practice in a long time (Wednesday).

"For us to do well our hearts have to be in it. I told our guys today I just want to see you fight."

Bryan Livesay led the way with 17 kills and 14 digs. Westin Bylsma added eight kills and five blocks.

Senior Lorenzo Chavez also came up with some big plays, finishing with eight kills.

"That kid took over the game for a time, especially in that second game," Scott Livesay said. "He rattled off five straight points in a row when he really needed it to extend our lead."

After a closely contested first game, Golden Valley blew out the Thunder (25-9, 8-2) in the final two games. The Cougars jumped out to a 16-6 lead in the second game and 22-12 lead in the third game.

"In our loss against El Capitan we were in a funk. Some games we get stuck in one rotation," said Bryan Livesay. "Keeping the energy up the whole time today helped us out a lot."

Softball

Golden Valley 5, Turlock 4 in Turlock – The Cougars worked 10 innings and came away with a big road win in extra innings. Marissa Bertuccio went the whole way in the circle and struck out 15 batters. She also hit a home run. Vanessa Saltos drove in two runs for GV (17-5 overall, 7-3 CCC).

Merced 11, Buhach Colony 2 in Atwater – Abby Flores hit two home runs and pitched a complete game as the Bears improved to 13-6 overall and 7-3 in the CCC.

Merced jumped out to a 10-1 lead after three innings. Liliana Ramirez hit a two-run home run to get the scoring started in the first inning. Flores hit a solo shot later in the inning.

Madison Kane hit a three-run double to highlight a five-run second inning for Merced.

Jewels Perez hit her second run-scoring single of the game during a two-run third inning for the Bears. Merced finished with 17 hits.

Tennis

Golden Valley's Alejwinse, Los Banos' Barcellos win conference titles

Golden Valley's Coen Alejwinse won a hard fought singles final against Pitman's Andrew Rosero 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to win the Central California Conference championship on Thursday at Buhach Colony.

Los Banos' Quentin Barcellos defeated teammate Jared Haug in the Western Athletic Conference singles finals. Barcellos was named the WAC Most Valuable Player.

This story was originally published April 26, 2018 at 9:27 PM with the headline "'We wanted to get back at them.' Livesay, GV in line for another CCC championship.."