Live Oak kicked off Mt. Hamilton Division play with a disappointing 3-0 loss to Westmont Tuesday night.
Disappointing in that the Acorns had opportunities in all three games to win and at the very least avoid a sweep.
Live Oak fell 25-23, 25-18, 26-24 to start league play with a loss.
Instead, the Warriors spoiled a good start by Live Oak by overcoming an 18-11 lead and sent the Acorns home on a down note by squelching a comeback bid in the third.
In the third set, Live Oak trailed 18-8 at one point before the Acorns came roaring back.
Live Oak went on a 14-4 scoring run to knot things at 22-all. The Acorns even held a tie at 24-all, having avoided match point two for two straight serves.
And in that stretch, it wasn’t one thing or one player who stepped up.
Julieanna Blotz had two kills, a block and an ace in the stretch. She was joined by Leanne Rupp with three kills and Bijan Hunt had an ace.
Mikayla Lacerda had a dramatic, match saving kill when she dove at a ball just intending to keep it off the floor. Instead, it bounced off her arm, went over the net and found a soft spot in the defense.
That allowed the Acorns to tie the game at 24-all.
It was in vain, however, as a kill from Westmont’s Julianne Hoeflich threw down a kill to allow the Warriors to serve match point and a mishit during the ensuing serve ended the night for Live Oak.
Hoeflich had eight kills, joined by teammates Kimberley Lee and Sarah Hazel who both had eight kills.
Live Oak’s Rupp also accomplished eight kills for the night. Blotz added seven.
But the night was really accented by the serves.
There were 30 aces between the two teams, marked by both great serving and shaky serve-receives.
Rupp had the serves of the night in the second set, hitting a curveball down the left line that just stayed in. She followed that on her next serve finding the deep right corner with a precisely placed ball that again fell just inside the line.
She had four service aces, joined by Lacerda who also had four thanks to serving three aces in a row in the second set.
Hoeflich matched the feat with four of her won.
Serve-receive, however, became the story of the night for Live Oak.
While some of Westmont’s serves came in hot and found perfect spots on the court, many were the result misplaying the serves.
That particularly haunted the Acorns late in the first set when Live Oak was leading 18-11.
Westmont went on an 11-2 scoring run with four aces in that stretch coming off of Live Oak not being able to handle the serve receive.
The Acorns had started off looking like they were going to have a quick night of their own.
After trailing 4-2 early on, Emily Pelz, Rupp had kills and Lindsay Baker and Pelz teamed up for a block in a key 4-0 run that turned into a 10-3 stretch that gave the Acorns a five-point lead.
After a three-point stretch, Live Oak’s Hunt had a pair of aces in a 5-0 stretch for the 18-11 lead.
Game 2, Westmont didn’t mess around.
The Warriors jumped out to an 8-1 lead that turned into a 15-7 lead just like that.
And the third looked like it was going to start the same way.
Live Oak came out firing, taking a 3-0 lead early, but were outscored 18-5 from that point.
That’s when Live Oak found another gear that brought things to their dramatic end.
Live Oak will now hit the road to face Piedmont Hills 6 p.m. Thursday.
