Ceres High’s and Central Valley’s girls volleyball teams battled this past week.

The Bulldogs won the crosstown matchup versus the Hawks by a score of 3-1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-23) in Western Athletic Conference play on Sept. 30 at Phil de la Porte Gymnasium.

“The crosstown rivalry is like you’re playing for the gold in the Olympics,” Ceres High head coach Kelly Heese said. “It’s nice to have that competition. The two teams always play with more intensity. I wish I could get my team to play that way all of our matches.”

Priya Martinez led Ceres High (5-7, 4-4) with 19 assists, three aces and two kills.

Genesis Sio had 11 kills and one ace.

Kamea Brown had 10 digs, two aces and one kill.

Riley Gaskill had seven digs, four kills and one ace.

Emma Hernandez had three aces.

Brianna Maravilla had two blocks, one kill.

Maiya Thao had one kill and one ace.

“We’re extremely young,” Heese said. “We’re still growing.”

Julyanna Valencia led Central Valley (5-10, 2-6) with 20 digs and two assists.

Gabriela Delatorre had 17 assists, 10 digs, four kills and three aces.

Marion Dennison had 12 aces, three kills, three digs and one block.

Payton McConnell had 10 digs, nine kills, two assists and one block.

Jayden Corona had eight digs and four kills.

Sofia Garibay had seven digs, three kills, two assists and one ace.

Emily Carranza had five kills, two digs, two assists and two aces.

Juliana Lopez had two digs.

Tanveer Kaur had one dig.

“Volleyball is a mental sport so these last set of league games we are really focusing on mindset and make sure these girls can compete,” Hawks’ head coach Courtney Dayhoff said.

The Bulldogs won the final three sets to secure the victory.

Ceres High bounced back after dropping the first set.

Central Valley had an opportunity to take a two-sets-to-none lead.

“Overall, I’m very pleased,” Heese said while assessing her squad’s performance. “They competed. They played together like a team and were very supportive of each other.”

“I thought we did well against Ceres,” Dayhoff stated. “We came out strong in the first set. We had a lot of service mistakes in the last three sets that cost us a lot of points.”

Winless in conference play a season ago, the Hawks have shown improvement this fall.

“I was very impressed,” Heese said. “They’re better this year.”

Ceres High will look to improve its head-to-head record versus Central Valley this season to 2-0 later this month.

The Hawks will play host to the Bulldogs on Oct. 23.

The crosstown rematch will be staged at 6:30 p.m.

Central Valley will have plenty of motivation as six Hawk upperclassmen will compete at home for the final time.

“It’s always a great match when we play Ceres,” Dayhoff said. “I hope we come out on top since we face them on Senior Night.”

Heese previously coached volleyball at Central Valley.

“The girls take it more personal than the coaches do,” she while talking about the crosstown rivalry.

“I prepare for each team the same for every match,” Heese added. “When you get on the court, you have to make adjustments.”