The West Valley volleyball team took over sole possession of 1st place in the Coast-South Conference with a raucous 21-25, 29-27, 25-13, 24-26, 15-6 win over Ohlone Friday night at Bob Burton Court in Saratoga. The battle of conference unbeatens exceeded expectations with back-and-forth rallies and big hits from both sides.

The Vikings (9-11, 4-0 Coast-South), winners of five of their last six matches, found themselves down one after a tight first set. They evened it up in an epic 2nd, and then ran away from the Renegades (17-4, 3-1) in set three for a 2-1 lead. West Valley had three match points in set four, but Ohlone rallied for three straight points to send it to a deciding 5th set. Four consecutive kills from Sophie Ehret staked the Vikings to an insurmountable 4-0 lead en route to an easy 15-6 match-decider.

Ehret had a monster match with a season-high 35 kills (.468%) and 15 digs. Julia LaPierre hit a fearsome .667%, connecting on 23 swings. Francesca Zanotti handed out a season-high 57 assists, while Jess Watanabe came up with 26 digs, followed by 18 from Rachel Sanchez. Lavelua Stepp had four solo blocks.

West Valley heads up the peninsula Tuesday (10/22) for a match at College of San Mateo (13-6, 3-1) and then returns to Saratoga Friday (10/25) to take on rival San Jose City (5-10, 2-2). First serve for both matches is 6:30pm.