After a promising first round playoff win Thursday against the Central Valley Christian Cavaliers (37-7), the Palo Alto High School girls volleyball team (22-9) lost Saturday to the Clovis West Eagles (29-13) in five sets in the CIF playoff quarterfinals.
The Vikings started off in full rhythm, dicing up the Eagles defense in the first set in every way possible and putting up eight straight points before Clovis West called a timeout.
Coming out of the break, the Eagles immediately got two points back with deceptive shots, but were unable to keep the momentum going with the Vikings extending their lead back to eight.
After each team exchanged scoring runs, the score was 17-8 and the Eagles called their second and final timeout.
Once again, the Eagles came out of their huddle at full speed, mounting an electric 7-1 run.
With the set coming down to the wire at a score of 23-21, the Vikings won two long, nail-biting rallies that concluded the first set and gave Paly a 1-0 lead.
Vikings Senior Reese Japic showcased her versatility on these points, winning one on a hit and another on a block.
Powered by their momentum and a Hambly block, the Vikings erupted out of the break in the second set with a 5-0 start.
However, a string of Paly blunders allowed the Eagles to feed off of their opponent’s mistakes and creep within one point.
With Hambly and Eagles hitter Maliah Williams exchanging back-to-back kills, the second set noticeably had fewer long rallies, and had more explosive plays.
As a result, points ended quickly and the score was suddenly tied at 19. Ultimately, the Vikings were unable to overcome a 20-23 deficit to close out the set, and the Eagles tied the game at 1-1.
Whether it was the bounce of the ball or the call from the referee, everything went Clovis West’s way to start the third set. The Eagles quickly scored nine points to Paly’s three and forced Paly to use their first timeout of the game.
Unable to extend their lead, Clovis West continuously hit balls out of bounds, and the Vikings racked up multiple kills to allow Paly to tie the game at 15.
Down the stretch, Clovis West established a 24-22 lead, which Paly was unable to come back from, with a hit going awry during the game point.
With Clovis West leading 2-1 and threatening elimination, the fourth set started out with the two teams neck and neck, involving countless lead changes and exciting points. No team held a lead greater than one until an Eagles missed serve gave Paly a 12-10 lead.
Three consecutive Viking points, including an Olivia Roper kill, set Paly up with a 23-20 advantage and an opportunity to equalize the game at 2-2, which the Vikings were able to capitalize on with the help of a Hambly kill.
Going into the fifth and final set, Clovis West mounted an early lead, and maintained it comfortably until a Reese Japic block tied the game at nine points, forcing an Eagles timeout.
Coming out of the stoppage, three quick points put the game back in the Eagle’s hands, but they were unable to hold on to their lead, as back-to-back Hambly kills put the Vikings right back into the game at 12-13.
The Vikings were unable to maintain their scoring momentum, and gave up two consecutive points, with a missed Hambly hit landing just out of bounds and ending the game in dramatic fashion.
Despite the 12-15 loss in the final set, the Vikings played well, and Crader had many positives to look at after their elimination.
“In a match like this there’s a hundred million little things to improve on, but there are also so many things that we did well,” Crader said. “I think this was one of our best matches of the season, and I think the last couple weeks have been some of the best volleyball we’ve played all season.”
The Vikings showed their ability to play good volleyball, but other aspects of the game may have hindered their overall performance. For example, Paly Junior Elizabeth Jerian said that the Vikings had trouble keeping their energy high throughout the game.
“Sometimes when we’re not leading, we start getting down on ourselves and the energy on the court really falls off,” Jerian said. “We need to be able to get energy through talking and believing in each other, not just from scoring points, which is something we were building and improving on the whole season. But I think that the added pressure in this game made us go back to our older habits.”
Another key factor of the game was Clovis West’s exceptional performance on defense, which Crader explained can be demoralizing for the opposing team.
“They were playing really good defense, just popping everything up, and it’s hard to stay aggressive and confident when the other team is playing that well,” Crader said. “But I thought we did a good job taking swings, and I’m really proud of the girls for that.”
Going into the offseason, Paly will be losing key seniors such as Marley Shumaker, who was a captain this year, and Japic. Paly’s young core, including juniors Hambly and Lina Ruan, and sophomores Genevieve Lee and Olivia Roper, will look to step into bigger roles next season, with Hambly already serving as a captain in her junior year.
