At Last, Canyon Learns Not to Slide Through Third

CANYON COUNTRY —  It looks like Canyon High finally learned: The third game’s the charm.

The Cowboys, prone to third-game lapses against quality opponents, had no such trouble against Valencia, downing the Vikings, 16-14, 15-11, 15-11, in a Foothill League boys’ volleyball match Tuesday at Canyon.

“This was a real breakthrough game for us,” said Coach Dave Gutierrez of Canyon.

In many ways.

The teams play two more times, both at Valencia, but the Cowboys (5-2, 2-0 in league play) took the first step toward defending their league championship.

They did it with something that had been lacking from their offense--balance.

Opposite hitter Gideon Gibson, a one-man show who has topped the 30-kill mark three times this season, had only 15 kills against Valencia.

Three of his teammates--Jesse Alo, Tim Polen and Skyler Chambers--each had 10 kills.

“Usually we’ve got one guy with 10-plus kills and you know who that is,” Gutierrez said.

Polen had five kills in the first game and Alo had four in the second game for Canyon, ranked No. 4 in the region by The Times.

Chambers, in his first start this season, had five kills in the third game to help Canyon shake its third-game jinx.

Last month against Highland, with the match tied at one game each, Canyon blew a 10-2 lead in the third game and lost the match in four.

More recently, Canyon held a two-game lead over Simi Valley, but lost a 9-8 lead in the third game and fumbled away the match in five games.

It didn’t happen against Valencia.

Canyon held a 13-8 edge in the third game and did not panic when Valencia scored the next two points.

Instead, Canyon was calm, picking up the final two points of the match on hitting errors by Valencia.

“I think that’s the experience of the two [losses],” Gutierrez said.

Added Gibson: “Before [Tuesday], we would get down on ourselves really bad and we wouldn’t get out of it.”

The Cowboys also gained a small amount of revenge. Canyon lost to Valencia last month in the championship of the Ventura tournament, 18-16.

Canyon won the first game on Tuesday, erasing a 14-12 deficit by scoring the final four points.

“That was huge as far as momentum goes,” said Coach Kevin Kornegay of Valencia. “We win that, it might have been a whole different outcome.”

The Vikings (7-3, 1-1) stayed close throughout the match thanks to Chris Savage, a 6-foot-4 sophomore middle blocker who had 16 kills, and Corey Feldt, who had 15 kills.

But Canyon had more options and fewer errors.

“We had several hitting errors in the final two games that translated into points for them,” Kornegay said.