After fast start, Sage Hill girls’ volleyball fades in season opener

The season opener for the Sage Hill School girls’ volleyball team showed both the Lightning’s potential and what the team has to work on.

Sage Hill put together a thrilling 10-0 rally in the first set in its home gym. Junior Sydnee Francis was serving tough, and junior Amiyah De’Long was putting down booming kills. Senior Carissa Long even had a dig that volleyed over the net into an open corner for a point.

Sage Hill managed to hold on to take that set from visiting San Juan Hills, but the Stallions rallied for a 23-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 nonleague victory Thursday night.

San Juan Hills (4-5) looked like the more polished team, and that’s true at this point of the season. The visitors, led by senior Katie Lukes and her 14 kills and six aces, traveled to the Ann Kang tournament in Hawaii earlier this month.

“We’re trying to get to a much higher level really quickly,” Sage Hill coach Dan Thomassen acknowledged. “Being the first match, I thought it was high-mistake. We were less consistent, for sure, than practice. This is a new dynamic with these girls playing together, even though we have some of the same parts, so we know it’s going to take some time. Some of these teams we’re playing these first few weeks have played quite a bit already, so they’re a little more battle-tested.

“I loved our energy to start. We came out, shook off mistakes quickly. And then our serving, passing and blocking all have to get a lot better. We’re working on it; it just takes time … We knew we would have to play really well to beat them, and we didn’t. We played well at times.”

De’Long finished with a match-high 16 kills for the Lightning, and Francis added 11 and three aces. Another key part of the offense this year is sophomore opposite Danielle Beder, who put down five kills.

Senior Jade Blevins, a setter who is a returning captain, dished out 33 assists for the Lightning.

“Even on tough passes, she was able to put up some really good sets for us,” Thomassen said. “We had to set back row a lot, which we haven’t worked on. We’ve either got to pass better, hit better out of the back row or both.”

Junior Abbey Dayton added 11 kills for San Juan Hills, last year’s South Coast League champion. Sage Hill is defending Academy League champion and last year was the top seed in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs, advancing to the semifinals.

The preseason doesn’t get easier for the Lightning, who travel to play at Mater Dei on Tuesday. The Monarchs are ranked No. 15 in the country by MaxPreps.com.

Still, it’s all good practice, Francis said. She has converted from a middle blocker to outside hitter for Sage this season.

“We kind of dropped off in the second and third game [tonight], but our energy in the first game was great,” she said. “I think a little bit more practice, a little bit more bonding with our team and chemistry, and we’ll be a great team. I think we’d be able to take them if it was the end of the season, for sure.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo