October 3, 2006

Leland hands Westmont girls’ volleyball first loss in league play

Warriors fall to 3-1 in Mt. Hamilton Division play following 3-1 loss to undefeated Chargers

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Editor

A match-up of two undefeated teams ended with the Westmont girls’ volleyball team’s first loss in Mt. Hamilton Division play on Sept. 28, a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the visiting Leland Chargers.

Westmont's Kelley Fleck hits past the Leland defense during a 3-1 loss on Sept. 28. Photos by Jeff Frazee

The loss dropped the Warriors out of first place, behind Leland (4-0). The Warriors were led in offense by senior Shelby Anderson, who recorded 10 kills in the loss, while junior Tori Arild had eight kills in the loss.

Westmont head coach Peter Kim said the loss, in part, can be contributed to the Warriors’ up-and-down confidence level during the game.

“The confidence level, with my team, goes up and down quite a bit,” Kim said. “They may have felt a little over-confident. That’s probably been our biggest thing, that we’re not consistent throughout the whole match.”
The Warriors dropped game one by a 25-19 score, despite holding a 19-17 lead late in the game. Leland bounced back to take the game with a 7-0 scoring run, fueled in part by five Westmont hitting errors.

“Leland definitely came to play,” Kim said. “At times, I thought we matched with their intensity, but for the most part, we made too many errors. We can’t make that many errors against a team like Leland, because they’re going to capitalize on it.”

Westmont’s best showing, arguably, came in game two when the Warriors jumped out to an early 13-3 lead on a 10-0 scoring run. Later in the game, with Westmont up 16-9, the Warriors managed to put together their second solid scoring stretch, a 9-3 advantage, to finish off the Chargers with a 25-12 score, tying the match 1-1.

On the final scoring run of game two, the Warriors took advantage of four Leland hitting errors, while getting a kill and a tip from Arild and a successful double-team block from Kristin Obermeyer and Kristen Prigatono.

However, game two was the only dominant showing by the Warriors, as games three and four featured several lead changes and see-saw battles between both squads.

Westmont's Kristin Obermeyer passes the ball on offense during the Warriors' 3-1 loss to Leland on Sept. 28.

Tied 10-10 in game three, Leland jumped ahead with a 6-2 scoring stretch for a 16-12 lead, only to see the Warriors claw back with a 6-2 run of their own to knot things up at 18-18. Leland managed one more scoring run to end game three however, posting a 7-2 scoring edge down the stretch to take the game by a 25-20 score.

Likewise, game four saw Leland jump out to a 17-9 lead before the Warriors edged closer with a modest 5-0 scoring stretch that featured five straight hitting errors by the Chargers.

From that point on, another modest run, a 4-0 stretch from the Chargers, set the score at 21-14, only to see yet another scoring run from the Warriors, a 4-1 edge to close the gap at 22-18.

Finally, Leland persevered, leading 24-20 before a Westmont hitting error sealed the 3-1 win for the Chargers.

Kim said part of the frustration throughout the match was the play of Leland’s defense, which kept digging several blistering hits from the likes of Arild.

“It’s kind of like tennis. You just hit the ball and you know you’ve killed it, but the other guy just returns it all the time,” Kim said of the Leland defense, which was led by Vicki Chang’s 25 digs. “That’s the same thing that Leland does. That’s their game. …It can be frustrating, when you’re hitting balls and you’re hitting them well, and just boom, it comes right back at you.”