Harvard in State of Disarray

Normally a model of consistency, the Harvard-Westlake girls’ volleyball team went to pieces.

Tuesday night was not kind to the defending state champion Wolverines, who fell to Bishop Montgomery, 15-13, 15-8, 15-10, in the State Division III semifinals at Bishop Montgomery.

The loss came 370 days after the Wolverines eliminated Bishop Montgomery in the same round of the State playoffs last year, when they were fluid and flawless.

“It was constant chaos,” said senior swing hitter Christine Bohle. “There was never a point during the game where we’d pulled it all together.”

Harvard-Westlake (21-4) trailed, 12-5, in the first game but fought back for a 13-12 lead behind strong play by Malaika Naulls.

Bishop Montgomery (23-6) recovered and grabbed game one on an error by Nicole Carrico.

Carrico has a slight stress fracture in her left foot and left with something potentially more severe. With the Wolverines trailing in the second game, 4-1, Carrico dove on a service receive and left for X-rays, which revealed a broken left wrist.

“We were all freaked out after Nicole got hurt,” said Naulls, who had 10 kills and four blocks. “It shouldn’t have affected us that much, but it did.”

Naulls was one of the few Harvard-Westlake players to finish with a positive hitting percentage.

Carrico had two kills and three errors when she left; Bohle had eight kills and 11 errors.

Bishop Montgomery, which lost a best-of-three to the Wolverines in the Orange County Tournament but swept a regular-season match two weeks later at Harvard-Westlake, plays San Jose Del Mar in the title match Saturday.

“I said it was going to go five, but we’ll take three,” Knights Coach Kim Willeman said.