Acorns rebound from first-game loss to advance to
quarterfinals
San Mateo – Although Live Oak dropped the first game to San Mateo in the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs, the girls volleyball team swept the next three to win 3-1 and move to the second round.
The Acorns blew an 18-8 lead in game one and lost 25-22, but recovered quickly to take the next three games 25-14, 25-16, 25-18.
Coach Laura Coleman said the first game nearly gave the host Bearcats the momentum to knock off Live Oak.
“We served ourselves off the court, which made us commit errors,” Coleman said. “Now the crowd got into it and I thought ‘Oh no.’ ”
Coleman said following the game, she switched her lineup and the girls began to play better.
“Our serving got better and we started to dig well,” Coleman said.
Coleman credited Katarina Cinkova with providing the biggest offensive weapon on the front row for the team.
“Even if she didn’t get kills, the other team couldn’t handle the ball,” Coleman said.
The Acorns would often use Cinkova as a secondary attack. When other hitters would drive the ball over the net, if San Mateo dug the attack out, Cinkova would very often have an open lane to record a kill.
“(The girls) would draw the blockers, leaving Kat open,” Coleman said.
Defensively, Coleman credited Jennifer Lima with keeping the Bearcats from being able to drive home attacks.
She was backed up by Laura Dudek and Sherilyn Fitch, both of whom Coleman said had excellent games.
Live Oak now moves on to St. Ignatius, which is the third seed in the playoffs.
Coleman said she hopes some of the initial mistakes that were made were the result of first-match jitters and said she thinks the team should settle down going into Saturday.
“We still have some hiccups,” Coleman said. “We have to figure out how to get out of some rotations faster.”
She said one advantage the Acorns will have is that St. Ignatius is ranked higher, so the heat is on that team to not lose.
“Now the pressure is not on us to win, so we cam be relaxed and go for it,” Coleman said.
Live Oak travels to face Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco at 1pm.
