The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
Wednesday evening’s playoff opener went about as smooth as you could hope for if you’re a Wilson girls’ volleyball fan.
The Bruins (24-23) hosted Trabuco Hills (13-14) to start out the 2025 CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs and never trailed against the Mustangs, cruising to a 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 victory on their home floor.
“I’m definitely pleased at how they played, but I think we could have put in a little more effort on certain fundamentals, and that’s what we talked about in the huddle,” said Wilson head coach Gersain Pineda after the match. “I feel like certain teams you play that are not at your level, you tend to sag off a little, but that’s stuff you work on in practice, making sure that you put that pressure on your opponent, try to be more aggressive on effort and fundamentals.”
Junior Simrin Adams did a little bit of everything for Wilson, leading the way with 15 kills on an impressive .345 hitting on the outside. The Stanford commit also added five digs, three aces and three blocks on the night. She started out strong in the first set, collecting eight kills and a pair of blocks in that game alone, and she reached double-digit kills before Trabuco scored 20 points in the match.
“It’s the first round of CIF, and I want to win,” said Adams, who certainly played like it. “Going into the game, I was trying to give it my all and make sure I’m working on the small things so I can do the most for my team. So I feel like that kind of is what pushed me in the beginning to work really hard and get a bunch of points.”
Sadie Calderone was also a standout for the Bruins, collecting 10 kills in the middle, including on match point. She hit a whopping .643 with just one hitting error, while also adding a match-high four aces.
Wilson started out each set well, leading 8-3 in the first, 8-2 in the second, and 16-4 in the third. The Mustangs were able to battle back and make things interesting briefly in the second set, tying the score at 18-all, but the Bruins closed that frame on a 7-2 run to win it comfortably.
While Adams was the main focus of the attack, it was also part of the plan to make sure more hitters got involved, especially in the middle of the net. In addition to Adams and Calderone, Peyton Agura and Milan Lewis each added a handful of kills.
“I think I was being really aggressive, which is something that I always try to do,” Adams said. “I think having that aggression did a lot for me today. Also, I feel like we were doing a good job of executing plays, running different routes, and spreading the ball around. I think that really helped us too.”
The Bruins also had a big advantage at the service line, with a total of 11 aces spread among six different servers.
Wilson will look to keep things rolling in the second round when they visit Cypress on Saturday.
