ORANGEVALE, CA (MPG) – The Casa Roble High School boy’s volleyball team concluded the 2022 season on Wednesday evening with a victory over Woodland on Senior Night.

The Rams (7-8, 6-4 Golden Empire League) began the week with a match against another school with a Ram as its mascot, Dixon (15-1, 10-0), on Monday night in Orangevale. Dixon came into the match-up already having clinched the Golden Empire League Championship with an undefeated record in league play.

In a battle of the Rams, Casa Roble pushed Dixon to its limit. For the first time since March 15 against Davis, the Rams conceded a set to their opponent. In fact, they lost two after not giving up even one for nine straight games and all season to league opponents. Casa Roble came out aggressive and determined to pull off the upset and snap Dixon’s 12-game winning streak Monday, winning each of the first two sets by a tight margin at 25-22.

However, Dixon refused to go down without a fight, prevailing in a tough third set 25-21. After recapturing the momentum by staying alive in the match, Dixon cruised to a fourth set victory 25-14 and in the decisive final set, 15-6.

Casa Roble had two players record kills in the double digits with senior outside hitters Easton Kimm and Gage Sjolin. Kimm, who served as team co-captain, led the way with 13 kills on 32 attempts and five errors. Sjolin followed closely behind with 11 on 32 attempts and six errors. Kimm tallied five serving aces on 20 total serves with one error, good for a 95% serving percentage.

Senior setter/right side Mark Dyachuk led Casa Roble in total blocks with two, one solo and one assisted. Two Rams had digs in the double digits as Kimm had a team-high with 18 followed by senior libero Michael Jordan (no, not Jumpman) who had 15. Two Casa Roble seniors also had assists in the double digits. Co-captain Dyachuk had a team-high 19 assists and Nicolas Marquez tallied 15.

The numbers don’t lie when it comes to the Dixon Rams’ dominance in league play. Dixon lost two sets to league opponents all regular season. The next closest team are the Mesa Verde Mavericks who lost 11, however, six of them were to the Rams.

Casa Roble came into Wednesday’s season finale seeking to bounce back from the heart-wrenching loss suffered against Dixon. Casa Roble took on the winless Woodland Wolves to end the season.

The Rams cruised to a first set victory, 25-11. The second and third sets were much tighter as the Wolves prevailed in both, 25-23 and 25-19 respectively. This may have shocked Casa Roble who expected to run over Woodland, but the Wolves wanted to end their season on a high note with an upset.

Casa Roble responded to the adversity extremely well, controlling the last two sets and going on to win, 25-11 and 15-7. Dyahuk recorded a team-high 12 kills on 23 attempts with three errors. Dyachuk and Marquez each tallied seven aces. However, Dyachuk did it more efficiently in half the time on 13 total serves compared to Marquez’s 26. Although, Dyacuk did have three errors while Marquez only had one.

Dyachuk and seniors, middle blocker Chase Allen and OH Adrian Perez, each recorded one solo block. Perez did it the most efficiently in only one set played. Jordan led the way for the Rams not in dunks, but in digs with eight. Marquez had a team-high in assists with 14 closely trailed by Dyachuk with 11.

With the 3-1 win, the Rams streaky season comes to an end. Casa Roble lost its first three games in a row, then won five straight and proceeded to follow that up with three more consecutive losses. The Rams ended their latest streak on April 8 with a road win at Pioneer, lost the next two including against Dixon, then were victorious in their final game of 2022.