The Sage Hill girls volleyball team was near defeat several times Tuesday night, but managed to thrive in the face of adversity in an Academy League match against St. Margaret’s.
The fifth-ranked Lightning dropped the first two sets but avoided defeat with a victory in the third and then stayed alive in the match with a late rally in the fourth set.
In the race to 15 points in the fifth set, the Lightning, beaming with new life, wasn’t going to be caught, sealing the match with a 15-11 victory.
The scores of the match were: 22-25, 22-25, 25-13, 25-22,15-11.
“We started to take care of our side of the net,” Sage Hill coach Dan Thomassen said. “We were playing high-mistake volleyball in the beginning … serving and passing are big for us and we weren’t serving tough enough, we were passing our all over the place and making it hard for our setter.
“St. Margaret’s played with great energy. They were digging what seemed like every ball. We know that we’re a high-stamina team, we know we can play long matches and be great at the end, so I’m really proud of the girls for that.”
In the fifth set, the Lightning (12-3, 7-0) snapped a 6-6 tie with a kill from Halland McKenna, a point on Sahar Rohani’s dig that narrowly fell inside the line and an ace by Jade Blevins.
After a timeout from the Tartans (17-3, 5-2), the Lightning ripped off another 3-0 spurt for a 12-7 lead.
“Our seniors, our captains, Maddy (Abbott), Halland (McKenna) and Kekai (Whitford) they wanted this on their shoulders,” Thomassen said. “They got better and better as the match went.
“We were a little shaky at times.”
One of those moments was in the fourth set. At one point, St. Margaret’s had a 16-11 lead. Sage Hill didn’t tie the set until 20-20 on a kill from Whitford.
With the set tied at 22-22, the Lightning evened the match with three consecutive points, two kills from Whitford and a block by Jamie Dailey.
“We have to learn from this and get better,” Thomassen said. “A lot of times their defense was outshining us and we can’t let that happen because we’re not a big team.”
Kekai Whitford led Sage Hill in kills with 24 kills. She also had 17 digs. McKenna had 23 with 25 digs and six aces. Blevins had eight kills and 12 digs. Maddy Abbott had five kills, 11 digs and 49 assists. Sophia Mossman added five kills.
The victory puts the Lightning in the driver’s seat for its first ever outright league title.
“I thought my team fought really hard,” St. Margaret’s coach Susie Maga said. “We had a game plan and we wanted to do some different things than we did in the first match (against Sage Hill). They listened and applied everything and came out ready to play and that was fun to see.”
Emily Miller had 19 kills and 19 digs for the Tartans. Peighton McRobie had 14 and 13. Gabby Benck added 10. Gabby Axelson had 21 digs.
“We didn’t want to get into a situation where we were on the defensive all of the time and they were dictating points,” Maga said. “I think that’s what kind of started to happen in those later games and they started to make things happen more than us.”
The Lightning swept the Tartans in their first match, Sept. 26. If St. Margaret’s is to get any revenge, it will have to come in the CIF-SS Division 3AA playoffs. Sage Hill is the top-ranked team, with St. Margaret’s at fifth in this week’s poll.
In the Freeway League
Troy 3, La Habra 2: Lauren Jackson led the host Warriors with 14 kills and Caitlin Haugen added 11 in the 25-17, 25-21, 21-25, 17-25, 15-9 victory.
Krysti Brice had 31 digs for Troy. Lexi Kolschefski and Ryana Murch had 18 and 16 kills, respectively for the Highlanders.
