by Dennis McCall
Taft Midway Driller
MERCED â€" Taft College got a big volleyball win here Wednesday when the Cougars swept the Merced Blue Devils.
"Merced is a very good team," said Cougar coach Kanoe Bandy. "They have two really good middles we had to figure out how to get around. They opened up with a stuff block."
The Cougars made the adjustment quickly and went on to a 25-19, 25-17, 25-12 Central Valley Conference sweep.
"We figured out early how to go around their block."
Sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Wong had a strong night both offensively and defensively.
"Chelsea had a really big game for us," Bandy said. "She hit 16-for-26 for 57 percent, and that's impressive. She also had 17 digs."
While Wong was leading the numbers on offense and defense, freshman libero Halle Neher had another good outing.
The freshman from Taft High had 14 digs.
"She really had to work hard," Bandy said. "She had to cover for people who were out of position."
Tara Kelley had seven digs.
Maeleen Hopeau and Sweet Viamoui both had three blocks.
Another aspect of the game that impressed the coach was serving.
"We served really well. We had only two errors all night, but they came at bad times. One was the first serve of the third set and the other was after a timeout. You never should have a service error coming out of a timeout. We've been working hard on more powerful serving. "
Kamalani Kahele led the way with 15-for-15, 12 points and an ace.
Setter Kaylynn Palama, who is coming back from an injury, played only the second set but served 9-for-9 for six points and an ace.
"She is the kind of server who can get a streak going," Bandy said. "She served points 17 through 23."
Palama had 16 assists in the set she played. Madeline Griffith had 20 assists in her two sets of work.
Nalani Kekuawela and Viamoui each had six kills and Griffith three, "which is really good for a server."
The win pushes the Cougars' conference record to 4-2 (8-11 overall) heading into home match with Reedley, also 4-2. First serve is at 6 p.m.