Glendale Adventist girls’ volleyball earns history
GLENDALE – For the first time in school history, the Glendale Adventist Academy girls’ volleyball team is heading to the semifinal round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs.
The top-seeded Cougars were part-dominant, resilient and clutch in defeating No. 8-ranked Los Angeles Sacred Heart of Jesus, 25-17, 25-23, 25-23 in the quarterfinals of the Division IX playoffs in Glendale.
“We’ve never made it to the semis, never, this is the first time ever,” Glendale Adventist coach Gared Luquet said. “For the girls, it was just a matter of knowing how good they are and having a lot of confidence in themselves.
“We’ve been the only ones holding ourselves back for so long and to finally break through, it feels great.”
Glendale’s prize is a trip to Tuesday evening’s semifinal round at 7 at fourth-seeded Canoga Park Faith Baptist (17-6), which swept de Toledo, 3-0, on Saturday.
The semifinal visit is only the second for the school in athletics’ history and matches the march of the girls’ basketball team in 2014.
Glendale Adventist (20-5) received plenty of big efforts all around, including 15 kills and 13 digs from outside hitter Elysie Knipschild and 16 kills, four aces and 10 digs from senior outside hitter Paige Singleton.
“All summer and all year we talked about pushing through,” Singleton said. “My sophomore year, we made it to quarterfinals, but we lost in four. To be able to win today meant a lot.”
Though not a clincher, maybe no win was bigger for the Cougars than their 25-22 victory in the second set.
Sacred Heart (17-5) rebounded from a first-set loss and appeared headed toward tying the match at 1 as the Comets took a 17-8 lead in the second game.
Sacred Heart junior opposite Michelle Segovia tallied five of her eight kills in the set along with two aces.
Luquet called a timeout down by nine and saw his girls respond and string together a 7-2 spurt to climb within 19-15 on a kill from Knipschild.
Despite a timeout from Sacred Heart, Glendale Adventist eventually pulled even at 21 on a Comets defensive error.
The teams were tied at 22 and 23 before a kill from Knipschild put Glendale Adventist ahead and an ace from Singleton delivered the game-winner.
“We say this a lot, but those types of comebacks are a lot easier when you’re focusing on just a few points, like trying to get five points,” said Glendale Adventist senior libero Camille Pizzaro, who finished with 16 digs. “We told ourselves what’s easier, trying to get nine points to tie or 25 points in the next set?”
The third set was equally tight with the match tied at 8 early on, as neither team took larger than a four-point advantage.
Sacred Heart rallied from a 15-11 deficit with kills from Kelly Manzo and Maryanne Baltierra (team-leading 13 kills) to tie it at 15.
The teams traded points until Glendale scored two consecutive points to lead, 23-21. This time a kill from Knipschild secured the 25-23 victory.
As for the first set, Glendale was in its comfort zone as the Cougars took a 16-10 lead and never allowed their advantage to be trimmed to less than four in a 25-17 triumph.
Glendale Adventist setter Liana Salvador added 37 assists and four digs for her squad.
