With a Tri-County Athletic League title and a Central Coast
Section playoff berth on the line, the Acorns didn
’t want to leave anything to chance.
With a Tri-County Athletic League title and a Central Coast Section playoff berth on the line, the Acorns didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
Live Oak over powered Gilroy in three games Wednesday night to spoil Gilroy’s homecoming and claim the inaugural TCAL championship with one game to go at Alisal Friday night.
Although Gilroy (19-9, 11-2 TCAL) has had a strong season and will finish in second place in the league, it only has a long shot to make the playoffs because of the league’s classification as a “B” league.
Live Oak (23-9, 13-0 TCAL) used its strong front line and a good digging game to win 15-12, 15-11, 15-5.
The CCS volleyball seeding meeting is Saturday at 9 a.m.
Although the opponent is still unknown, there is a good chance Live Oak will face off against Mount Madonna, who defeated Live Oak in Live Oak’s last time in the playoffs in 2000.
“I’m so happy for these guys,” said Live Oak coach John Telfer. “They go all the way back to their sophomore year when they went undefeated as JVs. It was a learning experience, and they got better and better.”
Live Oak started off the first game with a 6-2 lead. But Gilroy was able to come back after Live Oak committed several unforced errors.
There were a couple times, Live Oak went to bump balls over the net but floated them out of bounds on the side instead.
“I was getting worried because we made a lot of unforced errors early,” Telfer said.
But it was Gilroy that had 18 unforced errors in the game.
“They’re better than us,” said Gilroy co-head coach Craig Martin. “They’ve improved over the season and we had an off night. They couldn’t have played a much better game. Their back row could dig us up. Their back row players just played really well.”
“We didn’t play our best game either, but when it came to crunch time the guys seemed to pick it up,” Telfer said.
Gilroy took its first lead of the game at 10-9. Live Oak got a side out as left handed slugger Drew Pearson pounded a ball between the block of Tucker Baksa and Kyle Loving. That led to a 11-11 tie.
Gilroy took the lead at 12-11, but Live Oak fought back and retook the lead for good at 13-12 as Deem and Pearson came up with a combined stuff block. Matt McElroy got the next point with a cross-court slam, and Gilroy hit it long to wrap up the first round.
In the second game, Live Oak got into a early 5-1 hole and was forced to call timeout. It worked, and the Acorns got the side out. Live Oak regained the lead at 6-5 on a spike block by Deem and eventully worked it to 10-6.
Deem had nine blocks in the game and three stuff blocks.
“For the latter part of the season he has just become a blocking machine,” Telfer said. “They even tried to tip over him and he was blocking them.”
Terry Sullivan, who’s serves were barily clearing the net, got the Acorns four straight points before Gilroy called time out at 14-8. Gilroy got a little rhythm going and forced Live Oak to call time out at 14-11.
After a couple side outs, Live Oak dropped a ball into the far corner of the court, making the line judge do a wave motion with his arms as he realized it was fair instead of out like he first thought.
It was all Live Oak in the third round as Gilroy ran out of gas. The Acorns built up a 5-0 lead before Gilroy called timeout
Gavin Kolodge made the acrobatic play of the game as he jumped over Sulivan to save a ball off the ceiling to keep a rally going.
“The scrappiness that wasn’t there last is there now,” Telfer said. “They refused to wear knee pads, and hardly any of them went to the floor. That changed about halfway through the season after watching some of the better teams. That (their versatility) lifted up the team to a higher level.”
Cameron Bassett made the most of his limited playing time after coming in to serve in the third game. He put down the last seven serves to close out the game.
“Cameron has a real wicked serve,” Telfer said. “I saw they were having trouble with guys with float serves like Sampson (Chan) and Royce (Newcomb) so I subbed him, and he came through.”
Kolodge was the game’s kill leader with eight. Deem, Newcomb and McElroy all had seven for the Acorns.
Gilroy seniors Scott Martin and Jason Medenceles were held to six kills each.
“I am pleased if we can keep him in single didgets in kills,” said Telfer of the athletic Medenceles. “Last time he had something like 22 kills against us.”
And last time the game went to five games before Live Oak pulled it out.
“We came in here expecting to go five,” Telfer said. “We had the guys drinking extra fluids because we knew it could be a marathon. Every time we’ve played them, it has been close. It’s a rivalry, but it is a friendly rivalry.”
