Wolverines Taken to the Limit in Playoff

This time it wasn’t so easy.

Harvard-Westlake High, which hadn’t lost a game in its previous two playoff matches, was taken to the brink of elimination before rallying for a 15-3, 13-15, 8-15, 15-8, 15-4 victory over Notre Dame Academy Saturday night in the second round of the girls’ volleyball state playoffs.

The Wolverines (21-5), led by Anne Jakle (21 kills), Joanna August (19) and Kelly Ayers (14), advanced to the regional semifinals.

Harvard-Westlake needed only 45 minutes in a first-round victory over Exeter of Visalia.

But the Regals (19-4), who were swept by Harvard-Westlake in the Southern Section Division III-A championship match last week, made sure the Wolverines earned an extension of their season.

After losing the first game, Notre Dame Academy played resiliently in front of the net, luring Harvard-Westlake away from its strength of hard hitting.

Harvard-Westlake squandered a 9-5 lead in the second game and appeared disoriented at times in the third. The fourth game wasn’t going much better as the Regals reeled off four straight points.

“We were really playing sloppily on defense,” Coach Jess Quiroz of Harvard-Westlake said. “[We] started to question each other’s character and of being able to come out and do what they could do.”

Jakle helped reestablish her team’s power game, popping several kills that overwhelmed the Regals’ defense while also quieting a Notre Dame Academy cheering section that filled the gym with foot-stomping chants.