No. 1 Glendale Adventist volleyball serves up first-round win

GLENDALE — Glendale Adventist Academy’s girls’ volleyball team finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in CIF Southern Section Division VIIII, so a deep tournament run could be beckoning for the Cougars.

Glendale Adventist took the first step into the postseason, serving its way to a 25-8, 25-13, 25-7 sweep of visiting Pacific Lutheran in a first-round contest Tuesday evening.

“We were hoping to keep them out of system by serving them tough and just kind of being ready for the ball to come back because [Pacific Lutheran] is a scrappy team,” Cougars coach Gared Luquet said. “We were just trying to use [the serve] and be crisp to set up some nice plays and to try to wear them down and to get the kills.”

Glendale Adventist (18-5) served up 22 aces on the night, terrorizing Pacific Lutheran (9-11). The main culprits were Natalie Gregg and Paige Singleton. The pair of seniors had nine and seven aces, respectively.

Cougar Elyse Knipschild led all hitters with 14 kills to go along with three aces. Melody Coronel had 10 kills. Singleton added five kills.

In game one, Gregg came up with the score 16-8 in favor of the hosts. She served out the last 10 points of the game, including six aces. At one point in the run, she had three in a row. The final ace finished the game bouncing off a Stingray and hitting a light.

In game two, Gregg’s service game came into play again. She got the ball trailing 11-10, but by the time her turn ended, she’d recorded two more aces and the Cougars were up 21-12. Knipschild put an exclamation mark on the game with a kill from the outside to end it.

“I guess I felt the serves,” Gregg said. “I knew this was such a big game for us and I knew we had to make it to the next round for our team, so I guess that put the pressure on me that I knew I had to make my serves.”

It was Singleton’s turn in the third game. The senior came up to serve with a 16-7 advantage and promptly delivered a string of four aces. She would serve out the final 10 points of the match, appropriately ending it with two consecutive aces.

“It’s nice to go on a run and being able to know if they send the ball back over that we’ll get it back. The support of the team helps me keep going,” Singleton said.

Pacific Christian had very little offense, and the majority of the time the Stingrays’ third touch was hit flatfooted just trying to get the ball back over the net. Claire Covey and Erica Mitchell led their squad with three kills apiece.

Up next will be a match Thursday against Hillcrest Christian or Carpinteria.

“[We’ve got to] just keep calm remain calm and keep steady,” Singleton said. “We have so much potential this year, so we’ve got to keep going.”