It was not a good week for the Riverbank varsity volleyball girls this week, as they continued preseason play.
The RHS girls hosted a pair of matches, on Tuesday, Sept. 6, and again on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
In the first match, facing the Lady Lions of Big Valley Christian in Modesto, Riverbank lost in three straight games, 20-25, 16-25 and 17-25.
In the second match RHS took on the Lady Hawks of Liberty Ranch in Galt on Sept. 7. The scores were, 5-25, 8-25 and 15-25 for a three-game loss, as well. The Lady Bruins did manage to get a few more points against the Hawks as the match continued, but not enough to get a game in the win column.
Riverbank was scheduled to travel to Escalon yesterday, Sept. 13, then host the Mountain House Lady Mustangs on Thursday, Sept. 15.
The following week, there will be no local volleyball action, since the Lady Bruins go to Hughson on Tuesday, Sept. 20 and have a bye on Thursday, the 22nd.
Lady Bruin Golf
The girls golf team was to travel to Hilmar yesterday, Sept. 13 for league action, then come home tomorrow, Sept. 15, to host Gustine at the Escalon Golf Course at 4 p.m.
TVL Cross Country Meet
It has been tough in the early going for Riverbank’s cross country runners, with the varsity boys and girls getting their first taste of Trans-Valley League action this past week.
“We graduated several seniors from last year’s team and we have two varsity girl runners that are not running cross country this year, so we are very young and inexperienced on both squads,” head coach Monte Wood explained. “Both teams finished fourth at the first TVL meet last Wednesday. We did have some young kids step up and run really well and some kids have really improved.”
Carlos Aguilera was the top boys runner and finished 14th in the race.
“He has really improved, and I believe he is finally understanding that he can be a good runner,” Wood noted. “Sophomore Julian Lopez finished 15th in his first TVL race and improved tremendously from his first race. I think we have a lot of potential in the boys.”
The Bruins only have two seniors and now have nine freshman and sophomore boys running.
“Freshman Guillermo Guel finished fifth in the JV race and had a strong kick at the end which makes us think he could have run a lot faster,” said Wood. “Freshman Ramon Rosas ran varsity and did well for his first 5k.”
On the girl’s side, Alondra Hernandez was 9th overall despite dealing with a hip injury during the race. Valeria Aguiniga was 10th overall and was close to her best time ever on the course.
Cardozo Runners
Saturday at the Sierra Invitational Daynara Ruvalcaba finished in the top five for junior high girls (as a sixth grader). Aimee Rosales, Bella Marquez, and Ariel Chavez also ran for Cardozo. Another former Riverbank student, Livi Fernandez, ran with the girls. She is attending Ustach Middle School, but she has been running with the girls on Monday nights.
“If she had run with the girls as a team, those five girls would have won the junior high race,” Wood said of the middle school event. “Four of them are sixth graders and one of them is a seventh grader. They have a bright future ahead of them.”
