Jarman stands tall, lifts unbeaten Bonanza past Gorman
It’s not always by design, but when Price Jarman takes over for Bonanza’s boys volleyball team, the results are seldom poor.
The 6-foot-8-inch Jarman had 20 kills and 10 blocks Thursday to power the unbeaten Bengals to a 25-19, 25-27, 27-25, 25-11 victory at Bishop Gorman.
“We don’t exactly have it set up to always start with Price, but he is definitely our go-to guy,” said coach Joe Cap, whose team is 9-0 overall, 5-0 in the Southwest League.
“We use that to our advantage, too, to get the other teams to focus on Price. And that will open up our outside hitters and back-row attack more. It’s a benefit to have a player like that, where teams will focus more on him and leave Cru (Leavitt) and Jared (Hyer) and Parker (Evans) alone a bit.”
Jarman compiled eight kills in the first game as the Bengals rolled to a 25-19 win, but Gorman standout Bobby Houser, who had a match-high 32 kills, carried the Gaels to a second-game rally.
With the Bengals on game point at 24-23, Houser blistered back-to-back kills before an ace by Cameron Tom clinched the 27-25 win for Gorman. Houser had nine kills in the game.
The setback added more motivation for the Bengals, Jarman said.
“Whenever anybody plays Gorman, everyone’s motivated. They’re a private school, and we just want to beat them,” he said. “And (Houser) and I are friends, and it’s always easy to go head to head against one of your friends. It gets you fired up.”
The past several meetings have witnessed memorable matches as the teams battled for the top spot in the Southwest.
“It’s definitely a friendly rivalry between the two schools,” Cap said. “It’s always a great game between our two programs, no matter what the outcome is.”
Cru Leavitt had 20 assists early, then moved to the outside to help Bonanza strike for six kills in the final two games.
“That was one of the things that we put a lot of pressure on Cru this year,” Cap said. “That’s going to be his role. He’s stepped up to the challenge of going from the setter position to that outside position.”
Craig Whiting added 21 assists and two aces for Bonanza, which got five kills and two aces from Parker Evans.
“My setter Craig was setting me really well; me and him were just clicking,” Jarman said. “I had a size advantage today. I could hit over the top. They’re good middles, but I’m pretty tall. I owe all the credit to him.”
Cameron Tom supplied 37 assists for the Gaels, and Matt Lychock added eight kills and two blocks.