Escalon High’s volleyball team is off to a historic start. Here’s how they’re doing it
There’s a fine line between an athlete’s pregame routine and a superstition and the Escalon High volleyball team has a few unique rules to follow before a match.
Music plays in the locker room before every game. Most of the songs in the rotation vary but players can’t take the court until they’ve heard Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats.” Ten jump squats are also mandatory before they start their warmups.
Whatever it is, routine or full-blown superstition, it’s worked.
The Cougars are off to their best start in more than a decade. An undefeated 16-0 overall and 4-0 in the Trans-Valley League more than halfway through the season. They’ve won 43 sets and lost just five and are the highest ranked Stanislaus District volleyball team at fourth in the Sac-Joaquin Section, according to MaxPreps.
“Overall we’re playing great volleyball,” said coach Teresa Williamson. “We’re doing great things when we see good teams. We’re playing very sturdy and simplified volleyball right now, we’re hitting well. Our middles are young, they’re sophomores and one senior, and they’re coming along. We’re pretty solid hitting wise.”
The Cougars had to replace a lot from last year’s Division IV section championship team, including The Bee’s Player of the Year Amanda Murphy, but they’ve done that and then some. Six seniors bring experience that has shown itself in a close game against Ripon Christian and in wins against bigger schools like Enochs and Manteca.
“Corner to corner, we are stronger than any team I’ve ever had in the 23 years I’ve been here and that makes a difference,” Williamson said. “Having five outstanding hitters and not having to worry about just two makes a huge difference on the team. It makes the blocking on the other side difficult because they don’t know who our setter is going to set and she mixes the ball up very well.”
Of the six seniors on the team, two are among the best in the area as outside hitter Emily Vickers and setter Rylie Lattig have started the season as No. 1 in kills and assists in the section, respectively. Vickers has nearly 200 kills and Lattig is creeping up on 500 assists.
Lattig and Vickers are not only two of the team’s stat leaders, they’re captains and have been a part of championship teams in the past.
Vickers, a four-year varsity team member, won section titles in 2019 as a freshman and 2021 as a junior. Last season, she and Murphy formed a dominant 1-2 offensive punch; this year, Vickers has come into her own.
“Emily was the Robin to the Batman and she’s definitely the Batman this year.” said Williamson.
Lattig has been on varsity since her sophomore year and was the setter on last year’s championship team. The Cougars played a shortened season in 2020, going 8-2 in the spring.
“Rylie has honed the setting for our team,” Williamson said. “I did run a 6-2 here and there but when it’s crunch time I run a 5-1 with her.”
Though they’ve won 30 or more games the past two full seasons, this team could be even more special. Part of the reason is because they’ve grown up together. Some have known each other since elementary school and nearly all of the team has played on local club volleyball teams.
“It helps on the court by just building that connection,” Vickers said. “We don’t take anything off the court and every single person on this team wants to win. We know how hard it is going to be this year. Everyone on the team wants to do better and that helps a lot.
“We’ve been working hard. I wouldn’t say we were expecting to lose, but we knew we had to work hard for the teams that we were about to play.”
Don’t think this year’s team is complacent by any means. While most of the team has won one section title, they’re eager for more.
“We have a lot of experience because all six of our seniors play consistently,” Lattig said. “We have experience from last year and our successful season and we want to, like, to have that feeling again.”
This year’s non-league schedule was different.
While they played in tournaments like in years prior, they sprinkled in tougher Division III games against 2021 Division III semifinalists Central Catholic and Manteca and Division II section finalist Tracy. It’s a step up in competition that will reflect what they will see in the postseason after being moved up for playoffs due to the section’s continued success rule.
“I see the intensity of the team pick up and we play to that level,” Williamson said. “In our preseason games, we played a lot of D3 teams.That’s the experience of my six seniors to step up and play at that level in those games.”
The players are embracing the step up in playoff competition.
“I’m excited that we’re gonna be playing harder teams for the playoffs,” Lattig said. “I always look forward to our harder competition, it’s exciting when you know it’s going to be a challenging game.”
Williamson stresses the importance of taking the season one game at a time. With tough TVL opponents like Ripon and Hilmar and tough non-league games against Downey and Sierra ahead on the schedule, they can’t look past anyone.
Nevertheless, the significance of another section title looms. A win this year would give the Cougars three straight. It’s hard to ignore at times.
“We do think about it,” Lattig said. “We’re like, ‘Hopefully we could win again.’ But we don’t think about it too much. When we’re playing a game, we focus on that game and try not to think about the future because we know it’ll mess up the game we’re playing.”
Vickers echoed: “Yeah, we do think about it, but we know how much harder we’re going to have to work for it. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”
Section title or not, the end of the season will mark the end of Williamson’s coaching career as she has made plans to retire after 23 seasons. In that time, she has coached the school’s only two section championship teams and has led them to multiple 25-plus win seasons. Junior varsity head coach Shaylynn Beam will take over next year. Moving up a division for playoffs is bittersweet.
“I think if I’m going to be (in Division III), this is a team I want to be there with.” she said.
Lattig says she’s looking forward to one final season with her teammates and friends.“Since we’re from such a small town we’ve all been playing volleyball together since seventh grade. It’s our senior year and now we want to give it our all our last year.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Escalon High’s volleyball team is off to a historic start. Here’s how they’re doing it."
