Sluggish L. A. Baptist Rises to Volleyball Win

It was dubbed the Bible Bowl when the football teams from L. A. Baptist High and Village Christian met last Saturday.

Tuesday night’s meeting between the schools’ volleyball teams should be called the Miracle Match: It was amazing that L. A. Baptist pulled out the 4-game win, 10-15, 15-3, 15-7, 15-11, in a girls’ Alpha League match at Village Christian.

L. A. Baptist’s offense was about as dead as Lazarus, yet the Knights managed to rise to the occasion.

“We never did get in our offense,” Coach Cindy Noblitt said. “We weren’t L. A. B. today. We were just kind of mediocre.”

A surprising revelation for a coach whose team had ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the Southern Section 1-A Division poll that afternoon.

“We didn’t play like we were No. 1,” Noblitt said of the Knights (11-0 overall, 6-0 in league play).

That’s because the Crusaders (9-3, 5-2) played like the No. 9 team in the 1-A. Led by Heather Hepburn’s match-high 17 kills, Village Christian won the first game and led, 6-2, in the second when the Knights came charging back.

L. A. Baptist outscored Village Christian, 12-4, to take a 14-10 lead. The Crusaders scored 3 points to close to within 1, but L. A. Baptist scored the game-winner on a Crusader spike that went long.

Despite tying the match at a game each, the Knights still played tentatively.

“We played not to lose instead of to win,” middle blocker Darlene Rainville said.

Village Christian stayed within 2 points of L. A. Baptist in the third game until the Knights won it on a 9-1 run. The Crusaders also led, 6-1, in the fourth game before the Knights rallied to win.

Bernie Verwey led L. A. Baptist with 15 kills.