ORANGE – A slow start proved to be something the Saddleback Valley Christian girls volleyball team couldn’t overcome Saturday.
The Warriors, playing in their first CIF State final, fell into an eight-point deficit early in the first set and were never able to get on track, falling to Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco, 25-15, 25-19, 25-23, in the CIF State Division III final at Santiago Canyon College.
“The game tonight was probably not our best, but that’s OK,” SVC coach Carmen Stratton said. “(It’s) the first time in our school history that we’ve got this far and I’m proud of them.”
Stratton said her players were “nervous” and it showed in their play early in the match.
“Three years ago in CIF, we kind of did the same thing, where we kind of freaked ourselves out,” she said. “Tonight was the same type of thing that got the better of us. Emotions, maybe a little bit of nervousness, not talking, just stuff that we know can do a little better.”
The Warriors (33-6) overcame some big challenges to get to the finals. After winning their second consecutive CIF-SS title (Division 3A), they entered the regional playoffs as the fifth seed. They upset the No. l (Canyon Crest Academy of San Diego) and No. 2 (Sage Hills) seeds to advance to the finals.
Sacred Heart Cathedral (37-3), making its fifth appearance in the finals, took control from the start.
“They passed well and we didn’t get them into serve receive trouble and we didn’t hit our serving areas,” Stratton said of Sacred Heart. “We had a plan going in, as far as who we wanted to key on at the net, and we had missed blocking assignments and they did a good job of finding the gaps.”
The Warriors had a moment in the third set where they could have extended the match. They took a 19-18 lead in the set, forcing Sacred Heart Cathedral to usea timeout. The Fighting Irish scored consecutive points to take a 20-19 lead, and Saddleback Valley Christian called a timeout.
Later, Shannon Geraty gave the Warriors a 23-22 lead. After that, Sacred Heart Cathedral scored the final three points to seal the match and the victory.
“They played a really good game and were really steady,” Stratton said of Sacred Heart Cathedral. “They were in attack mode the entire game and had us on our heels.
“This team feeds off of momentum and when we can’t get a string of points, we struggle, but they did a good job of siding out and not letting us get on those runs.”
This was the Warriors’ best performance in the CIF State tournament. They lost in the regional final last year.
“It was a lot of fun to be around this group of girls,” senior outside hitter Sydnee Martin said. “It was an amazing experience for my senior year.”
Heidi Dyer led the Warriors with eight kills. Jaelyn Greene and Geraty had seven apiece.
Kayla Yew led the Sacred Heart Cathedral with 18 kills.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com