The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
After falling into a 2-0 hole against Wilson, the Lakewood girls’ volleyball team mounted a furious comeback to defeat the Bruins 17-25, 20-25, 25-17, 25-18, 15-10 on Tuesday afternoon in their Moore League opener.
The win ended a 6-game losing streak to Wilson and marked the first win for the Lancers’ seniors over the Bruins.
“I’m like, hey, don’t worry about trying to win this match right now,” Lakewood coach Adam Wadley said. “We got to win this third set to keep it going. So I think we were trying to look at the finish line rather than the journey itself. So I think that we grew doing a better job on playing one plane at a time.”
In the first set Lakewood jumped out to a 6-4 lead, but Wilson (4-12, 0-1) went on 9-0 run led by Sophia Quinn and Grace Cruz. That momentum continued as the Bruins pushed the lead to 21-9.
Lakewood responded with their own 9-2 run, but Wilson closed the set with a 25-17 win. Quinn finished the set with a team-high four kills.
Quinn continued her early tear as she had two early kills to give Wilson a 6-1 lead in the second set, but the Lancers continued to fight as they went on their own 5-2 run to make it 8-6.
However, the Bruins went another 7-2 run before taking the second set 25-20 to take a commanding 2-0 lead. That’s when the match started to shift in Lakewood’s favor.
Lakewood (14-4, 1-0) jumped out to a 4-1 lead to gain some confidence after kills from Aaryn Hunter and Jenna Smith, however Wilson’s Cruz had four of her 10 kills to take a 9-7 lead.
The Lancers continued to respond as they went on a 10-6 run as they got their block going against the Bruins’ attack. That momentum carried as Lakewood made it a 2-1 lead with a 25-17 win.
“We were just telling ourselves that wasn’t Lakewood volleyball,” Smith said about the first two sets. “We wanted to show out. It’s our first game, it’s a whole match, we have a lot of seniors on the court. This is the time for us to show this is Lakewood volleyball.”
That third set proved to be a turning point for the Lancers as they took a 10-6 lead in the fourth set and after Wilson tied things up after an ace – Lakewood went on another run this time a 7-2 run to take a 17-12 lead.
Sophomore Mialani Mapu then made her presence felt from the service line as she had three aces as the Lancers forced a fifth set after a 25-18 win.
“I just really focus on my serve, try and get them out of system,” Lakewood sophomore Mialani Mapu said. “So we could at least side out on our side.”
In the fifth set, Lakewood took a 4-1 lead and after two more aces from Mapu – the Lancers took a 8-3 lead. Wilson answered back with a 6-2 run to cut Lakewood’s lead to 10-9.
Lakewood’s Emma Donaldson had two kills to give the Lancers a 14-10 lead and Aaryn Hunter capped the comeback with a block.
“They’re still learning to play with each other,” Wilson coach Gersain Pineda said. “There’s a lot of underclassmen, too, playing together with upperclassmen. We’re gonna continue learning how to play the rest of the season.”
The Lancers are back in action on Thursday when they host Poly while Wilson hosts Jordan.
