TORRANCE – Esperanza coach Isaac Owens tried to warn his team before its CIF-SS Division 2AA semifinal match on the road against South Torrance.
The team it was about to play knew how to take a blow and get back up.
But the visiting Aztecs fell into the same trap South’s two previous playoff opponents did, allowing the Spartans to come back in a 23-25, 25-18, 24-26, 25-14, 15-6 loss Tuesday night.
South (25-9), the Pioneer League champions, trailed similarly in five-set wins in the second round and quarterfinals.
“We played to lose, not to win,” Owens said. “Good teams don’t play that way. You have a team down 2-1 (in sets), in their gym, you have to finish them. … They found a way the last two rounds and they found a way tonight.”
Ahead 2-1 after a momentum-swinging 26-24 victory in the third set, where sophomore Gina Lipscomb and senior Kylee Berridge had four kills apiece, the Aztecs (19-12) never looked in sync during the final two frames.
In the deciding fifth, South went on an 8-0 run to break a 4-4 tie and Esperanza could not recover. South junior outside hitter Karly Eastley finished with a match-high 24 kills and had three kills and a block during the final set.
Berridge led Esperanza with 13 kills, Lipscomb added 10 and freshman Avery Stowell added nine.
Early on, it looked like the night would be a charmed one for the Aztecs, after they rallied from a 19-11 deficit to win the first set and faced set point in the third before scoring the final three points to claim the frame behind blocks from Stowell and Yagoda Jedrzejczak, and a kill from Lipscomb.
The rally never came in the fourth or fifth, but the experience may be crucial for the four starting Esperanza underclassmen.
“You want to play in these types of matches – semifinals, CIF, going five,” Owens said. “I just wish we would have made it more exciting – to have them sweat it out a little bit.”
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com
