Flintridge Sacred Heart volleyball stopped by Lakewood in second round
LA CAÑADA — In a decorated four-year career on the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy volleyball team, Kayla Lund got plenty accomplished on the court.
Lund provided the Tologs with leadership and top-flight skills to keep them in the upper half of the Mission League while also helping them qualify for the postseason.
Lund saw her run at Flintridge Sacred Heart end Thursday after Lakewood registered a 25-20, 28-26, 25-27, 25-20 CIF Southern Section Division II second-round victory against the host Tologs.
“It took a lot of hard work and I got to play with a whole lot of great teammates, starting with Sophia Coffey, who helped me when I was a freshman,” said the University of Pittsburgh-bound Lund, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Volleyball Player of the Year who finished with 33 kills, 19 digs and six blocks Thursday. “I had a lot of fun here and we played against a hard team in Lakewood.
“We had a successful season and we made a lot of progress.”
Flintridge Sacred Heart (23-10) spent a lot of energy trying to match up against Lakewood (30-4). The second and third games combined to last nearly an hour.
After Flintridge Sacred Heart, which finished second in the league behind Marymount, fought off match-point in the third set, it began to wear down late in the fourth set. Lakewood, which won the Moore League championship, put the finishing touches on its victory with a kill from Julia Crawford.
“We practice defense every day,” Lakewood Coach Mike Wadley said. “We also work on our transition offense and that really got us going in the fourth game.
“We had to come back a couple of times in the third set and I think that turned out to be the main point in the match. We know the Flintridge Sacred Heart coaches through club and we also know Kayla is a fantastic player.”
In the third set, Lakewood rallied to take a 24-23 lead on an ace from Karyzma Auliitia and forced Flintridge Sacred Heart to the brink of elimination. A kill by Ellis DeJardin gave the Tologs a 25-24 lead before the Lancers tied it at 25. Lund wrapped up the set with a kill to keep the Tologs breathing.
Flintridge Sacred Heart appeared on the verge of tying the match at one game apiece. The Tologs, who began the playoffs with a sweep against San Marcos, took a 24-22 lead following a kill by Lund. Lakewood then got the next two points to tie it at 24. Flintridge Sacred Heart took leads of 25-24 and 26-25, but couldn’t close out the Lancers. Lakewood then finished up on a 2-0 run to take a 2-0 lead.
“The one thing we saw was that Lakewood didn’t ease up at any time,” Flintridge Sacred Heart Coach Ernest Banaag said. “It just came down to us making too many errors and we probably doubled them in errors.
“It was a good overall match. It was tough losing that second game. We had a lot of chances in all of the games.”
Flintridge Sacred Heart received 14 kills, 12 digs and four blocks from DeJardin and nine digs from Tori Conlon.
Lakewood got 30 kills from Destynie Villamu, 17 from Auliitia , 60 assists from Shelbie Dobmeier and 19 digs from Ally Busch.
