State volleyball champ Sonora off to another fast start

Nearly nine months ago, Sonora coach Kim Evans stood in the winner’s circle at Santiago Canyon College and said her team had flown under the radar en route to their first CIF state championship.

Back home, the small-town Wildcats dominate the discussion.

The two-time defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV champions are off to another fast start.

Sonora improved to 2-0 Wednesday with a 25-18, 26-24, 25-11 victory at Oakdale, a former Valley Oak League rival. Riley Patterson had a match-high 14 kills and Kiana Pisula orchestrated the offense with 25 assists as the Wildcats continued their mastery of Stanislaus District opponents.

Sonora, which surprised top-seeded Alta Loma in the CIF Division IV state final, hasn’t yielded a game in three matches this season, including the section’s Foundation Game.

Oakdale (0-2) came close to snatching one, extending the second game. Lauren Ott had five kills to pace the Mustangs, trumped 3-1 in their season opener against Enochs on Tuesday.

Isabella Cobarruvias had 15 assists, Abigail Matoso four aces and Savannah Rogers 10 digs in the loss. Oakdale travels to Escalon on Tuesday.

Patterson and Pisula sparked the Wildcats. Patterson had 18 digs to go along with her kill count, while Pisula and Kelsie Evans had three aces apiece.

Sonora begins the High Sierra Tournament on Thursday with Casa Roble.

Modesto 3, Ceres 2 – Sheng Xiong picked apart the Ceres defense, finishing with a team-high 12 aces in the Panthers’ 25-10, 18-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-3 victory.

Alyssa Cover had 17 assists and Jessica Pedretti finished with seven kills in Modesto’s season opener. Xiong and Pedretti also had six digs, tied for the team lead with Tori Galloway.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 10:47 AM with the headline "State volleyball champ Sonora off to another fast start."