L.A. Baptist Advances in State Tournament

The L. A. Baptist girls’ volleyball team was supposed to come out and demolish its opponent. After all, after suffering their first loss of the season, to St. Anthony in the Southern Section 1-A championship game Saturday, the Knights thought their season was over.

They got a reprieve, however, when the state seeding committee looked kindly upon the Knights and gave them a bid in the Division III state tournament.

But instead of coming out strongly and inspired Tuesday night, the Knights came out sickly and sluggishly before bouncing back to record a 15-12, 15-10, 15-6 win against Garces of Bakersfield (18-6) at home.

“We had never lost before, so I wasn’t real sure how we’d come out,” Knights Coach Cindy Noblitt said. “If we would have come out and destroyed them it wouldn’t have surprised me. But with our two setters sick we came out real sluggish.”

With setters Bernie Verwey and Nicole Rameson taking the floor despite suffering from colds, Noblitt switched her strong-side and weak-side hitters to compensate. The Knights took time to adjust and fell behind, 9-7, in the first game.

The Knights (20-1) regrouped and took a 10-9 lead on a service ace by Rameson and 2 by Andrea Lucadam, who finished with 4 aces. L. A. Baptist won the first game on an ace by Darlene Rainville.

In the second game, L. A. Baptist jumped to an 11-5 lead before Garces, the Central Section champion, closed the gap to 11-9. Verwey served for the final 2 points, and Michelle Christiansen ended the match with 1 of her 6 kills.

“In the second game we just dug ourselves in a hole we couldn’t get ourselves out of,” Garces Coach Maria Leavens said. “They didn’t do anything we haven’t seen before. I just think our girls were a little overwhelmed by the whole thing, the state championship and the long trip and all.”

Sandy Null had a game-high 9 kills for L. A. Baptist, followed by Lucadam with 7.

In the second round Saturday, the Knights will travel to play Parker of San Diego, a 15-9, 15-1, 15-3 winner against Mission College Prep on Tuesday.