Divicino, Silverado rally to hand Coronado first league loss

Silverado’s boys volleyball team didn’t get off to the start it hoped to Thursday at Coronado.

Kyle Divicino got the Skyhawks up to speed pretty quickly, though.

Divicino had 24 kills to help Silverado rally to a 23-25, 27-25, 23-25, 28-26, 17-15 win and hand the Cougars their first Southeast League loss of the season.

“We knew what we had to do, and we came back in the second set with fire,” said Divicino, who added two blocks. “Nothing’s worse than losing, and we did everything better; we passed better, set better, hit better, and everything just opened up.”

Silverado (10-1, 7-0 Southeast) jumped to a 12-8 lead in the fifth set, but Brandon Dau had five of his 24 kills while trying to rally Coronado. Tyler Cucullu had a booming block to cap a 5-1 run and put the Cougars up 15-14, but Coronado committed three consecutive hitting errors to give the match to Silverado.

“We’ve just got to play to win, and not to not lose,” Divicino said. “We’re here to win, and not to not lose.”

The Cougars (8-3, 6-1) took advantage of a balanced attack and eight missed Silverado serves to take the first set.

But the Skyhawks regained the momentum in the second set behind a late 10-4 run that was capped by Ruben Jackson’s block.

Curtis Hadland provided a spark off the bench for Silverado with 11 kills and six aces, and the Skyhawks settled down at the service line in the final four sets.

“Curtis has the most service points on the team, and he’s very clutch serving,” first-year Silverado coach Kevin Schwallie said. “And him stepping up on the outside has been huge for us. At times, he’s been our go-to guy, other than Kyle. The last couple of weeks, Curtis has rose to the point where I wouldn’t mind the game-winning kill going to him. He’s going to adjust when things aren’t perfect. He definitely stepped up.”

Dakota Relle had 46 assists, two blocks and two aces for Silverado, and Jackson finished with seven kills and three blocks.

Connor Stephenson had 49 kills and four blocks for the Cougars, who got 13 kills and two blocks from Austin Moiseyev and 11 kills from Cucullu.

“Every time we come to Coronado, we know it’s probably going to go five,” Schwallie said. “Maybe it’s just the rivalry; for the last few years, we’ve wanted to beat them as bad as they want to beat us.”