The Live Oak girls volleyball team went down to the wire
Saturday against Piedmont Hills in the Central Coast Section
Division I championship game against Piedmont Hills and came up
just short, falling 25-21, 17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 13-15.
The Live Oak girls volleyball team went down to the wire Saturday against Piedmont Hills in the Central Coast Section Division I championship game against Piedmont Hills and came up just short, falling 25-21, 17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 13-15.
“In no way am I devastated,” said head coach Laura Coleman. “Win or lose we played their hearts out. No one expected us to be here, not even me. I call it my little Cinderella team.”
But not all hope is lost.
By playing in the final round of CCS, the Acorns have qualified to play in the Nor-Cal tournament. They will take on No. 4-seeded Liberty High School in Brentwood tonight at 7 p.m.
Coming into play Saturday, the girls already had two upsets under their belts, defeating Milpitas and Salinas. But that run ended against the No. 2-seed Pirates who the Acorns did not play this season.
The girls clicked early, and had the first game well in hand, making Piedmont look sloppy.
The next two games, the table turned. The Acorns couldn’t catch a break. In the second game, the Pirates scored 10 unanswered points to given them an insurmountable lead.
The girls wouldn’t recover until the fourth game.
During the fourth game, the Acorns seemed to figure out Piedmont and ran away with the game.
Leading the way was Junior Juliette Bowers who had six kills and some spectacular saves that kept rallies alive. She would finish the game with 19 kills.
With the win in the fourth game, the girls forced a decisive game five.
Both teams played like they wanted the win. The Acorns took the early lead, but the Pirates came back to tie the score. Both teams would go back and forth until the final points in the match.
The Acorns would fall by four points, but came back to tie the score at 13 apiece. But that would be all.
Piedmont mounted a quick scoring offensive that ended with a shot by Bowers landing in the net.
“We had a lot of fun,” Senior Kaycee Dowdle said. “We’ve never made it this far; it was exciting.”
No matter what the team does in the upcoming Nor-Cal tournament, girls volleyball will be able to take the experience into next season. The Acorns will only lose five out of the 13 players on the team.
“This was supposed to be next year’s team,” Coleman said. “This team is young.”
