Prep Volleyball: Leland hands Live Oak 7th straight loss; coach still sees progress

The woes continued for Live Oak volleyball Tuesday, but new head coach Laura Coleman sees progress.
“I thought my hitters did really well tonight,” Coleman said.
She added that the serving could use some tweaks as well as the serve-receive, but Coleman said that will come as she gets more practice with the girls and as the girls have more games with their new coach to show what needs to be worked on harder in practice.
As Coleman assesses mid-season what talent she has available, the frustrations continue for the Acorns who dropped their seventh-straight league game, falling 3-1 to Leland, 23-25, 17-25, 25-18, 20-25.
“I changed up the lineup tonight because I don’t know where I really want them to go — I still haven’t seen all of them play. The last two games was the lineup they’re used to, I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best one,” Coleman said. “We’ll get there.”
Despite the scores, Live Oak battled in all four games, especially in the early points of each one.
Live Oak opened the night with a 4-2 lead, but fell victim to a Leland run that proved to be a prevailing theme.
The Chargers used scoring runs of four or more four times to clinch their fifth league win and 12^th overall victory.
Leland capitalized on a pair of Live Oak fouls in an early 6-0 run to go up 11-5 in the opening set.
That lead increased to nine at 18-9 midway through before Live Oak found its rhythm.
Lexi Budde had three aces and Morgan Victor had two kills in a 10-1 scoring run that pulled the first set even at 19 all.
“Today, I see moments of brilliance. But, you know, they have a lot of work to do,” Coleman said.
Both sides went on three-point scoring runs to knot things at 22 before the Chargers put the game away with two kills and a block.
The second game started much as the first with Live Oak jumping out to an early lead.
Behind the hitting of Renee Rhoads and Victor and the service aces of Courtney Borja and Shannon Laranjo, the Acorns built an 11-9 lead.
Leland, however, took over the game with a 7-0 run behind four Live Oak hitting errors.
From there, the Chargers cruised to an eight-point win.
The tables turned in the third set as Leland jumped out to an early lead only to see it evaporate.
Trailing 5-3, Live Oak capitalized on Leland mistakes to take an 8-6 lead.
Up by one a short time later, Tiffany Ziegelman served three service points, including an ace as Live Oak took a 14-9 lead.
Julieanna Blotz led the charge from the front of the net, recording three kills that helped Live Oak to a 15-10 lead.
Leland threatened late, coming to within one thanks to a 5-0 scoring run, but Victor served three aces and Borja had a kill to put Live Oak on a 6-0 run and within one point of a win.
A hitting error gave Leland the serve with Live Oak receiving for game point, and Borja drove it home for a 25-18 win.
The Acorns weren’t able to carry over the momentum through game four as Leland overcame an early run by Live Oak to put things away quickly.
The start of the match went as well as the teams could have hoped, as neither side committed a hitting error for the first 11 points. All 11 came by way of a kill, with Borja picking up three and Madison Hartman and Victor each adding one.
But the back-breaker for the Acorns came when they saw a single point deficit balloon to seven thanks to mini runs from Leland.
Live Oak fought to get back in it, as Borja sparked a short run to pull within four at 17-13 and Blotz had two kills in a second run to pull to within three at 19-16.
But the errors piled up and a Live Oak foul — its 10^th of the match — pulled Leland to serving match point.
The Acorns fought off the loss for two serves thanks to Leland errors, but a kill from the Chargers’ lone senior ended the contest.
Borja led with 11 kills, followed by Victor with nine and Blotz with seven.
Serving, Victor had four aces to lead the team, followed by Budde with three.
Love Oak will remain in Morgan Hill on Thursday, taking on Sobrato in the Bulldog gym.
Sobrato started the Acorns on their losing streak in a 3-0 sweep. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, are 6-2 overall, including 5-2 in league play.
The match is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at Sobrato.