Rebels fall to Valiant effort
LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — While playing in one of toughest leagues in CIF Southern Section Division 3-A, the Flintridge Prep girls’ volleyball team doesn’t get much of a break as far as its nonleague opposition either.
The Rebels, who, at seventh, are one of four teams from the Prep League ranked in their division, welcomed Viewpoint, the fifth-ranked squad in Division 4-AA, to their gym on Wednesday.
Without one of their top players, setter Casey Meurer, the Rebels fell just a bit short on offense in their effort to prolong the match, losing, 25-15, 25-20, 25-23.
“She’s a big part of our team, especially against an offense like we just faced,” said Rebels Coach Sean Beattie, who couldn’t say when he expects to get Meurer back from illness. “She puts up a much bigger block. Meagan [Chow] played an incredible game setting-wise, but Casey averages five kills a match and that’s something that we didn’t have today.”
In the first game, the Rebels just couldn’t get out of their own way, committing eight serving errors, which led to a 13-9 deficit. From there, the Valiants (8-3) tacked on another four unanswered points to take control of the game at 17-9.
Prep (8-5) started the second game off better behind two kills and an ace from Morgan Brown and a kill from Marin Seifert.
After falling behind, the Rebels rallied to take a 15-12 lead on a run that included two more kills from Brown and Seifert and an ace by Charlotte Kay.
But Viewpoint caught Prep at 16 on a roof by Jordan Larson and used the momentum to close out the game on a 9-4 run.
Prep played its best volleyball in the third game and almost came back from down 24-20 when a Kay ace pulled the Rebels to within one point.
Earlier in that game, Prep also enjoyed a three-point lead, but couldn’t hold off the Valiants.
“The kids played well today against a very good team,” Beattie said. “You can’t complain about that.
“The first game we knew was going to be rough and from that point on we progressively got better and better.”
Brown and Seifert contributed seven kills each for Prep, which got five kills from Imani Holyfield and 18 digs from libero Tori Glebocki.
Chow recorded 24 assists and figures to get the start again today when the Rebels resume league play in a 5 p.m. match at Westridge.
“She’s been playing back row for us all year and then she got thrown right into setting against one of the best teams we’ve seen all year,” Beattie said of Chow. “She did just an amazing job and we have confidence in her for [today].”