Merced Union High School District

The Livingston High boys volleyball team has a motto they try to instill in their players  – Stick to their bread and butter. There was a sign hanging in the gym to remind the team. “Sticking to our bread and butter means doing what we usually do,” said Livingston senior Gurvir Singh. “Don’t try to do anything fancy.”

 

The Wolves’ “bread and butter” approach was more than enough to earn a three-game sweep over Beyer on Wednesday night in a Western Athletic Conference showdown. Livingston came in ranked No. 1 in the Sac-Joaquin Section in Division IV by MaxPreps and the Wolves dispatched of the section’s No. 1 ranked Division III team Beyer 25-17, 25-16, 25-19 to improve to 18-5 overall and 5-0 in the WAC.

 

It was a big early season match that put Livingston all alone atop the WAC. There was a big crowd and a lot of emotion during the match, but the Wolves have big aspirations this season. “We have bigger goals than winning the league, but this was a big game,” Singh said. “We’re looking for a state championship.”

 

The Wolves used a balanced attack to take down the Patriots (15-3, 4-1 WAC). Singh finished with 11 kills, two blocks and eight digs. Bradley Kaji added eight kills and four blocks. Udayveer Dhadda, Navjot Sekhon and Abhiraj Dhillon also played well at the net for the Wolves. Shabajot Kaloya finished with 14 assists and Gurmukh Gill chipped in with 12 assists.

 

Livingston coach Mike Alvernaz says the area the Wolves have made their biggest strides this season is on defense. This is a Wolves team that returns most of the key pieces from last year’s team that finished runner-up at the CIF State Championship. Alvernaz said coaches have come up to him and applauded their improvement on defense when playing the Wolves at tournaments. Livingston came up with some spectacular saves against Beyer to keep plays alive by chasing balls down and diving on the floor. 

 

“This team does a great job of playing for each other and that makes coaching them a lot of fun,” Alvernaz said. “We saw that tonight, they didn’t let many balls hit the floor. That’s one area where we’ve really improved from last year is our defense.”

 

Dhadda led the defensive effort against the Patriots with 12 digs. The Wolves will host Grace Davis on Friday before heading to Stockton for a tournament on Saturday. 

El Capitan 3, Los Banos 0 – Tyler McCreary led the Gauchos with 11 kills and eight digs in a 25-8, 25-15, 25-16 sweep of the Tigers on Tuesday night. Richard Her orchestrated the Gauchos offense with 26 assists as El Capitan improved to 14-2 overall and 3-0 in the Central California Conference. 

 

Golden Valley 3, Atwater 0 – The Cougars kept pace with the Gauchos atop the CCC with a 25-14, 25-12, 25-9 victory over the Falcons to improve to 13-8 overall and 3-0 in the CCC. Esteban Moreno led the Falcons with 18 digs.

 

Merced 3, Buhach Colony 1 – The Bears defeated the Thunder to improve to 6-5 overall and 2-1 in the CCC. Buhach Colony was led by Anthony Nieto-Virrey, who finished with nine kills and two blocks. Merced will travel to El Capitan on Thursday night.

 

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.