The No. 13 Live Oak volleyball team appeared to have a chance
against the No. 4 Aptos team early on, but the the power hitting
and quickness was too much for the Acorns, who lost 14-16, 2-15,
10-15 in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs
Thursday at Live Oak.
The No. 13 Live Oak volleyball team appeared to have a chance against the No. 4 Aptos team early on, but the the power hitting and quickness was too much for the Acorns, who lost 14-16, 2-15, 10-15 in the first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs Thursday at Live Oak.
Aptos advances to the CCS quarterfinals to play the winner of No. 12 Willow Glen and No. 5 Los Gatos Saturday at 1 p.m. at Santa Clara High School.
“It is kind of tough playing with our “C” team,” said Live Oak coach John Telfer, who was forced to call numerous timeouts in the game to try to break the hot streaks. “ A good team will make you not play your “A” game. Our blocking was the poorest its been all season. The quickness wasn’t there tonight. That is the most inconsistent we have played since early in the season.”
But the Acorns have nothing to hang their heads about after finishing the season with the most ever wins by a Live Oak team and making it to the playoffs for the third time in club history.
“You go away with that pain in your stomach knowing that you played your normal game it would at least be close,” Telfer said.
For the most part, Live Oak appeared to remain calm against the higher ranked team.
“I think the first game was kind of indicative of the fact that we weren’t nervous,” Telfer said.
The Acorns earned the home court advantage by finishing first in the Tri-County Athletic League with an undefeated record.
But it wasn’t much of an advantage as the Live Oak gym was filled with more blue than green. The fans who made the trip over the hill were loud and rowdy, and many wore face paint. They had to be asked to move because they were yelling in the middle of serves.
Live Oak appeared to be in cruise control, starting off the game with an 8-3 lead. But the Mariners started tipping balls in between the blockers and came back to take a 9-8 lead.
With the score tied at ten, Aptos pounded off three straight points before Live Oak was able to get the side out and respond with three of its own to tie the score at 13. Both teams tied at 14 before Aptos was able to finish it off.
“We weren’t even playing that well in the first game,” Telfer said. “We came out with a lot of confidence, but we let it go. We felt we should have beat these guys. Not winning the first game really hurt our momentum.”
In the second game, Live Oak couldn’t get any rhythm, and Aptos put eight points on the board before Live Oak could answer.
Just when Live Oak would get the sideout on a kill, Aptos came right back with tough angle shots across the court by outside hitters Chis Doerker and Tommy Kaysen that fell between players or knocked the normally sure rooted Acorns off balance.
“They’re really big,” said Aptos coach Jonah Carson. “And I can see why they have done so well this year. They hustled for a lot of balls. They sub at the right times, and they use guys to their strengths. No game is easy.”
Live Oak, normally a strong serving team, gave away several points on serves hit long. The Acorns also had a good amount of trouble handling the Mariners serves, which Live Oak would one-touch over the net for an easy Mariner kill.
The Acorns did have their share of kills in the game. Drew Pearson led the way with 10, and Matt McElroy had nine. McElroy’s hits and saves were key to helping keep drives alive and start brief spurts of momentum in Live Oak’s favor.
Live Oak did have a stronger effort in the third game. Although the Acorns took a 1-0 lead, they were forced to play catchup the whole game and could never swing the momentum.
“Volleyball is probably one of the oddest sports when it comes to momentum,” Telfer said. “It is a big ally when you have it and its hell when you don’t.”
