NORWALK – The Beckman girls volleyball team might have been an afterthought as the third-place team out of the Pacific Coast League as the CIF-SS playoffs began.
The Patriots then went out and defeated three consecutive league champions to advance to Saturday’s CIF-SS Division 2 final against Ventura.
It was there that the magical ride ended for the Patriots, falling to top-seeded Ventura, 25-14, 25-23, 25-16, at Cerritos College.
“We didn’t come out and play the type of volleyball that we would have hoped, that we had definitely been playing the last couple of weeks,” Beckman coach Darin McBain said. “We’ve been playing so loose, and set one, you could see we had a couple of girls out there that were a little bit tight.
“Game two we jumped out to that big lead and you could see us get tight as it got closer, and it’s too bad because I think if that second set goes a little differently, I think we’re definitely still playing in set four and I think we would have had a real shot at winning that match.”
After dropping the first set, the Patriots rebounded quickly for the second set, scoring five of the first six points and at one point leading, 18-9.
McBain called his first timeout at 18-13 and the final one with a 21-19 lead.
“You have to try and slow the momentum and calm the girls down,” McBain said. “We went out and got a little tight in serve receive, but give them (Ventura) credit, they did a great job slowing down our two hitters. They put a pretty good block up and the balls that they weren’t blocking, they were getting touches, digging a few balls and running some offense.”
Ventura finally caught Beckman at 21-21 on an ace from Mary Sinclair. At 23-23, Ventura scored the two points to take control of the match.
Jill Schneggenburger led Beckman with 16 kills. Hannah Schneggenburger added seven. Camryn Dennis had 14 digs for Beckman and Hannah Graves had 12.
Looking back on their CIF run, McBain said he told his players to hold their heads high.
“We lost the first set at MLK in the first round,” McBain said. “Second set was tight and we were able to pull that out. Then we just got on a little run. The girls were confident.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
