Baptista goes on the attack to help Buhach Colony win CCC showdown over El Capitan.

Miranda Baptista’s versatility was very useful on Wednesday night.

Down one attacker, Buhach Colony girls volleyball coach Adrienne Beltrami asked Baptista to attack in the front row and relieved her of her setting duties. Mallory Pazin handled the full-time setting job.

Baptista came up big, leading the Thunder with 14 kills and Pazin finished with 40 assists as Buhach Colony handed El Capitan a 20-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-21 defeat in a battle of two teams who came into the matchup 5-0 in the Central California Conference

“I like hitting,” Baptista said. “I like playing defense. I like setting, too. Whatever she wants me to play, I’ll do.”

Beltrami wanted as much fire power on the court as she could have in a big matchup against the Gauchos. Beltrami doesn’t like to pigeon hole her players into positions.

“You never know what the team is going to need,” said Beltrami, whose team took over sole possession of first place in the CCC at the midway point of the season at 6-0. “You never know if we’re going to need to switch because of an injury or someone is struggling.

“We have several players who can do many things. If you’re a team playing us, you never know what we’re going to do. We’ve got a lot of tools on our tool belt.”

The change in the rotation may have been needed anyway after Baptista jammed her thumb early in the match going up for a block.

“I jam my fingers a lot,” said Baptista, who finished the night with her right hand taped up. “It hurts now, but it’ll be fine tomorrow.”

One of the Thunder’s biggest obstacles on Wednesday night was nerves. Buhach Colony (9-7 overall) came out and made a lot of mistakes in the first game and quickly found themselves facing a 1-0 hole.

It took BC a while to settle in with first place on the line and playing in front of their biggest crowd this season. Especially with Buhach Colony trying to win its first CCC championship since 2007.

“This was definitely our biggest rooting section this year,” Pazin said. “We wanted it a little too much at the beginning. We came out a little tight. By the second, third and fourth games, we loosened up and started playing like ourselves.”

Pazin seemed to make the right decisions when she needed as she distributed the ball equally to her hitters. Cameron Gray and Maggie Seifert both finished with 12 kills. Pazin also hurt the Gauchos (10-5, 5-1 CCC) in crucial moments by dumping the ball over the net.

El Capitan had a tough time regaining momentum after Buhach Colony took control. The Gauchos spent most of the time playing from behind the final three games.

“I feel like our girls stopped having fun,” El Capitan coach Chela Moreno said. “They got down. You could see it in them. They weren’t laughing on the court. They weren’t messing around out there. I know it sounds funny to say we play better when we mess around, but we do.”

Robin Helms led El Capitan with 12 kills and five blocks. Paige Martin added 10 kills, 14 digs and four aces and Natalie Collins finished with 30 assists, eight digs and two aces.

El Capitan hopes it can set up another big matchup with the Thunder in the regular season finale on Oct. 15 at the Stable Center.

“Our focus can’t be on Buhach Colony now,” Moreno said. “Our focus has to be on our next match against Atwater. Do our girls wish we could have this game back? Yes, I’m sure they do, but Atwater is our next match and in the CCC anybody can beat you.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2018 at 10:12 PM with the headline "Baptista goes on the attack to help Buhach Colony win CCC showdown over El Capitan.."