Live Oak volleyball drops fourth straight

Live Oak dropped its fourth-straight match Thursday night, falling in five to Evergreen Valley and is now temporarily without a head coach.
Coach James Uthes was let go this past week with the school citing “legal issues” that were apart from the high school and the team.
The Acorns dropped to 6-7 overall and have struggled since losing to Sobrato to open Blossom Valley Athletic League play, falling Thursday 21-25, 25-21, 25-20, 16-25, 9-15.
“We got down when we couldn’t pass,” said assistant coach Peter Borja. “We just rolled and got down and they got the momentum.
Live Oak will try to break the losing streak 7 p.m. Saturday against Monte Vista Christian in its Dig Pink match. The Acorns will be selling trinkets, T-shirts and food with proceeds benefiting breast cancer research.
Admission is free, but donations will be accepted.
The Acorns were evenly matched with the Cougars as the match featured 16 lead changes, including 12 between the first and third sets.
But Evergreen Valley stole the momentum late in the match and never let go.
After Live Oak pulled out to an 11-8 lead in the fourth set with the Acorns needed just one more win to pull out the match, Evergreen went on a scoring run that stole the show.
After going up by two, Live Oak scored 14 more points through the end of Set 4 and the entirety of set five.
The Cougars went on an 8-0 run to take control of the fourth set and never allowed Live Oak any closer than two points the rest of the way.
Evergreen Valley continued the momentum in Game 5, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, eventually going up by six midway through.
Live Oak’s attacks while strong, always seemed to fall into the waiting arms of a defender who managed to pop the ball up and gave Evergreen a fighting chance at a strong counter.
This was especially true during the eight-point Cougar run in Game 4 as strong attacks from Renee Rhoads, Courtney Borja and Julie Blotz just couldn’t find open court. Or the ones that found an open spot were dug out through a wild effort from Cougars defenders.
“They really fought through, aloing with Alexis setting and Courtney playing defense,” Peter Borja said.
The Acorns put up a fight at the end, but couldn’t overcome the deficit.
Things started out ominously for the Acorns who saw a 6-4 lead in the first set disappear behind a Cougar six-point scoring run.
Live Oak stood strong in the game, erasing a four-point deficit to take a 17-16 lead late.
The Acorns even pulled to within one at 21-22, but three straight Cougars points put the game away.
Live Oak looked to be on the path for a Game 2 loss as well, falling behind 15-7 before a run led by Madison Hartman with Rhoads, Borja and Blotz stole the game.
The momentum continued into the third set as the balls seemed to fall in Live Oak’s favor.
A serve from Rhoads to take the lead at 16-15 hit the top of the net and trickled over for an Ace.
Hartman added two kills, Borja had an ace and Rhoads added a block to pull out a five-point win.
Hartman led the team with eight kills, followed by Rhoads with seven and Borja and Blot with six. Rhoads also had four aces. Alexis Budde and Daytona Hernandez added two aces.