L. A. Baptist’s Dream Season Ends in Defeat

For the L. A. Baptist girls’ volleyball team it was a season described by co-Coach Cindy Noblitt as “a year that went beyond our expectation.”

For Parker High of San Diego it was merely another season of high expectations with the usual results.

The Lancers, working toward a third consecutive Division III state championship, defeated L. A. Baptist in the semifinals of the state tournament, 15-12, 15-5, 15-2.

Parker was led by 2 All-San Diego Section players in 6-1 Heidi West (11 kills) and 6-0 Tina Harris (8 kills).

“I think this team is the best I’ve been on, and I’ve played on the varsity since I was a freshman,” West said. “We’re a little more confident than the other teams.”

The closest L. A. Baptist came to putting a scare in Parker was when it rallied from a 10-2 first-game deficit to move within 2 points, 12-10.

“I wasn’t really worried when they rallied,” Parker Coach Sabine Stork said. “We’re always a little slow in the early going.”

The Lancers (23-4) used Harris and West as both front- and back-row hitters, keeping the Knights (20-2) guessing the entire match.

“I like to take advantage of our height,” Stork said. “Hitting from the back gives us four hitters instead of three. It’s kind of like what Steve Timmons (of the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic team) does.”

After L. A. Baptist middle blocker Darlene Rainville turned an ankle, the Knights seemed to self-destruct.

“I think we had 16 unforced errors in that second game,” said Noblitt, who missed most of the second game while taping Rainville’s ankle. “I feel like I got taken out of the match after Darlene went down.”

The consensus on the Knights’ side seemed to be relief that a long season was over.

“This year has been filled with experiences that we never expected,” co-Coach Sue Newcomb said. “There’s been a lot of traveling and a lot of togetherness. It’s been a good year.”

The Knights went through the regular season 15-0, won an Alpha League championship and finished as the runner-up in the Southern Section 1-A final.