Another tough setback for No. 1 Los Alamitos
The Griffins lose a five-set battle with Long Beach Wilson in the Steve Lewis Memorial Volleyfest.
In less than 24 hours, Orange County’s top-ranked girls volleyball team Los Alamitos suffered back-to-back, five-games losses to out-of-county opponents.
The latest was to Long Beach Wilson, 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 25-16, 15-10, on Saturday in the Steve Lewis Memorial Volleyfest at Lakewood High School.
Los Alamitos (16-9) lost at Dos Pueblos, ranked No. 1 in the CIF-SS Division 1-A coaches’ poll, on Friday night. After arriving back home at midnight, the Griffins went out and squared off with the Bears (12-2), the No. 4 ranked team in Division I-AA, at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
"A loss right now doesn’t affect us too much," Griffins coach Dave Huber said. “We want to find out everything we can about us for the playoffs. We are trying to prevent losing in the playoffs.”
Los Alamitos, ranked No. 2 in Division I-AA and winners of the Dave Mohs tournament, hasn’t lost to a team inside the county this season. The short turnaround may have factored into their loss to Wilson.
The Griffins top hitter Jane Croson played just four points in the final game after sitting most of the fourth out. Emily Hartong finished with 15 kills and Halli Amaro added 11.
Wilson was led by Rebecca Strehlow’s game-high 26 kills.
“There was mental fatigue with us, if anything,” Huber said. “I think we ran out of gas there at the end.”
In other Volleyfest matches:
Lakewood 3, No. 4 Santa Margarita 0: The Eagles were swept, 25-20, 25-21, 25-17, in a rematch of last year’s CIF-SS Division I-AA quarterfinals.
Lakewood, which lost to Los Alamitos in five games in the final of the Gahr tournament, is ranked No. 3 in the Division 1-AA poll. Santa Margarita is No. 10.
Long Beach Poly 3, No. 9 Laguna Beach 1: The Jackrabbits fought off the Breakers' comeback attempt, 25-19, 25-22, 21-25, 25-14, in the second game of the event. Poly is ranked No. 9 in Division I-AA; Laguna Beach (6-5) is ranked No. 4 in Division I-A.
Paulette Grand Pre led the Breakers with 11 kills and nine digs. Alex Rieckhoff had 10 kills and Allison Palmer had 31 assists.
