L.A. Baptist Victory Has Familiar Look

Four L.A. Baptist starters are playing their third season together and it showed Tuesday night during a 15-10, 15-14, 15-7 victory in a nonleague girls’ volleyball match at L.A. Baptist.

The head coaching debut of Notre Dame’s Neil Coffman, a former All-American at Cal State Northridge, wasn’t as disastrous as it was disappointing.

Notre Dame played good enough defense to pop up most of L.A. Baptist’s attempts, but it failed to make the transition to offense.

“We lack a terminator right now,” said Coffman, who was an assistant for three years at Notre Dame. “We have girls that are consistent and smart, but it’d be nice if one of them was a hammer.”

L.A. Baptist (2-0) has three hammers. Kristen Jensen had 20 kills, Gloria Erickson had 11 and Patricia Stanton had six blocks and six kills.

The three of them, all seniors, have been named all-league the past two seasons. They’re not exactly tired of each other.

“This is the year,” Jensen said. “We’re out strong, we’re all confident. Keep an eye on us.”

L.A. Baptist wasn’t perfect, especially with four service and three ball-handling errors in the second game.

Back-row defense is also a concern for the second-ranked team in Southern Section Division IV-A.

“There was a little bit of a low, but good teams fight through it,” Coach Sue Newcomb said.

Melanie Reyes had 11 kills and Tiffani Franzini added 10 for Notre Dame, which played without setter Nevada Blonstein (injured lower back).