The Sage Hill girls volleyball team has a chance to accomplish the impressive feat of going undefeated in the Academy League.
Sage Hill encountered one of its final challenges on the road to a perfect record Wednesday, a road game against rival St. Margaret’s, and the Lightning passed it with flying colors.
Sage Hill, led by senior Jamie Dailey’s 13 kills, pulled off a sweep the Tartans, 25-19, 25-18, 25-18, to move to 8-0 in league with four matches remaining.
Sage Hill (14-9 overall) has gone undefeated once before (2014) in the Academy League.
“I think overall, we played really consistent,” Dailey said. “Sometimes we struggle in the big games, but I thought we came out really solid tonight. We didn’t make many errors.
“Last year, we were one game away from being undefeated in league, and this year it has been really fun to have a big impact on the team. To go undefeated would be a huge deal for us.”
Dailey and the Lightning won their first match against St. Margaret’s (9-2, 7-2) in four sets. Sage Hill has only lost two sets in league this season.
The first encounter with St. Margaret’s could have gone the other way, as two points separated the teams in each of the four sets.
This time around, Sage Hill avoided any late-game troubles to win the each set rather comfortably.
“I loved the way we played,” Sage Hill coach Dan Thomassen said. “I thought that this was the first time, in a rivalry match, in a big match, that we played our best from start to finish, and I think that’s important confidence-wise going into the playoffs.
“We kept the pressure on serving and we got better as it went along. I thought our blocking got better, our defense. Obviously, Jade (Blevins) is a fantastic setter, so she got the ball to all of our hitters and spread it out well.”
Amiyah De’Long and Sydnee Francis had 12 and 10 kills, respectively for Sage Hill.
Gracyn Benck led the Tartans with 12 kills.
In the Golden West League:
Ocean View 3, Loara 2: Hayley Mezzano had 16 kills and five aces and Penelope Russ had 14 kills to lead the Seahawks (8-8, 4-2) to a 25-21, 25-16, 15-25, 21-25, 15-7 victory.
Kelli Greiner had 18 digs for Ocean View.
The Saxons dropped to 3-4 in league.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
