Morgan Hill – A sea of green flooded the Live Oak gymnasium as the green and white Monterey faced the green and gold Acorns on Wednesday in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division III volleyball playoffs.
It was the No. 9 Toreadors (12-20) that left feeling a little blue after the No. 8 Acorns won 23-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-17. Live Oak (13-16) will face No. 1 Valley Christian (29-7) in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“We got the scouting report from Christopher High,” said Live Oak coach James Uthes. “They played Monterey and had no problem with them. He told us what they had and we knew we could beat them easily, no disrespect to them.”
West Catholic Athletic League powerhouse Valley Christian on the other hand is a different story. It is a team that many of the players are familiar with after playing club ball together.
“They are really, really strong,” Uthes said. “It will be some of the girls’ last game so we will have to give it our all. We just have to do our best.”
Despite leading for much of the first set, the Acorns weren’t able to close it off. Monterey held a lead just once after that – to start the fourth set.
Uthes employed a new attack strategy in the first game that he hoped to use to give Valley Christian something to worry about. He started power hitters Fa Saulala (10 kills) and Savanna Hartman (eight kills) on the right side. The Acorns also got a strong game in the middle from players like Madison Hartman, who was the kill leader with 11.
The strategy paid off for the most part as the Acorns moved out to a 19-12 advantage.
But Monterey stormed back to draw within 21-19. Live Oak went up 23-20 before the Toreadors rattled off five points in a row to close it out.
In the second set, sophomore Courtney Borja got into the action with a pair of kills early and helped close it out with her serving.
“Everyone was pretty excited for this playoff game,” Borja said. “We had a really good practice this week. We just wanted to play relaxed and treat it like another game.”
With the players leading the crowd in chants of “Live Oak” in the third set, the Acorns jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind three aces from sophomore Alexis Budde, who had 32 assists in the game. Monterey remained close in that set thanks to several Acorn errors.
The Toreadors led 2-1 to start the fourth set, but Saulala and Hartman in their more traditional home on the left side were too much, throwing down repeated power shots.
“We came out really pumped up,” Saulala said. “It was like a different team from the regular season. We were really ready for this game.”
