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St. Monica Academy volleyball makes easy work of first round

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PASADENA — The St. Monica Academy girls’ volleyball program returned to the postseason following a regular season in which the Crusaders won their seventh straight International League crown and kept active a 56-match league winning streak to earn the No. 3 seed in CIF Southern Section Division VA as the home team in a first-round contest against visiting Newbury Park Adventist Academy.

On Tuesday night, St. Monica Academy played host at Westridge High School and the Crusaders ran away with the win, sweeping the Gators, 25-11, 25-10, 25-9, to advance to the second round and give junior setter Molly Hagan a victory for her birthday.

“That was a good beginning to the whole thing,” St. Monica Academy Coach Darren Bradley said.

St. Monica Academy (21-3-2) was led on the attack by potent outside hitter Therese Boles. The senior had a match-high 13 kills to go along with a share of the match-high total for aces with five.

“[Boles], our outside hitter, was really good, but she was getting a lot of good sets from Molly,” Bradley said.

Crusader Michelle Hall tied Boles for match honors in aces with five, to go along with three kills. Hagan had four kills and four aces. Middle blocker Sophia Vega had five kills.

“We wanted to get our middles involved,” Bradley said. “We ran a lot more middles.”

Newbury Park Adventist (10-9) played strong defense for the majority of the match, but it rarely led to offense. Amanda Takemoto led the Gators with two kills.

“They were actually a pretty scrappy team on defense. They made some pretty good digs,” Bradley said.

The Gators, the No. 4 entry from the Omega League, often were concentrating on just getting the ball back over by their third hit. This meant it was often just a matter of time before the Crusaders would end things with a kill.

“I think our out-of-system is just as good as our normal system;’ Hagan said. “So, no matter how bad they threw off our system of play, we could get it back up and get it going. It was just a matter of wearing them out, endurance.”

Game one, which got underway 37 minutes after the scheduled time due to the Gators being delayed in traffic, saw the hosts score the first four points of the contest, ending with a kill from the outside by Boles. A Hagan kill brought game point and, after a Gator hit the ball out, the final margin of 14 marked the largest advantage of the opening game.

Game two saw the visitors hang around in the early stages, but the Crusaders pulled away late. An ace by Hall ended it.

Game three was all St. Monica, which scored the first five points, including four straight kills to open. The contest came to an end on a Vega kill. The junior pushed the ball over the net with two hands after Boles had recorded back-to-back kills to set up game point.

Tuesday’s match inside the Hoffman Gymnasium, a regular site for Crusaders playoff matches in the past, was the first time this year St. Monica had called it home. However, St. Monica arrived an hour early to learn the space and get comfortable.

“We just kind of felt around and did a lot of serving,” Hagan said. “So, we got a feel for the gym and what was going on. I think our nerves calmed down before the game started.”

Tuesday night’s win was the first step for St. Monica back into the playoffs, in which the Crusaders reached the quarterfinals or better from 2009-2013 until they sat out last year due to a rules infraction. Up next, in the second round on Thursday, will be a match against the winner of the opening round matchup of Southlands Christian at Crossroads Christian at a site to be determined.

“We always get our energy going for the first one and it just keeps going,” Hagan said.

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