Santa Rosa loses tough opening match in playoffs

Ariana Madrid leaps to spike the ball in Santa Rosa Academy's match Tuesday night.

Story and photos by Joe Quinn, Correspondent

Watching the Santa Rosa Academy and Twentynine Palms girls volleyball teams playing back and forth and the lead often no more than twompoints in the first two sets, one had to wonder how good must those teams be that made the CIF playoffs on the strength of the regular season.

These two teams were evenly balanced, talented and with a load of athletic ability in their Division 8 wild card match Tuesday night. That is up until the fourth set, when the Wildcats of Twentynine Palms took the lead, expanded it and stayed ahead throughout the set, taking the match, 3-1.

The first set was played ever so close, with the lead shifting back and forth. Although the Ranger girls were up 23-22 they lost the last three points and the set, 25-23. This was despite a spectacular left-handed back-hand block by Allison McGavran earlier in the set and great net play by Ariana Madrid.

Genevieve Mezamartinez got to everything on her side of the court and more and did as she always does, setting up spikes and attacks for her teammates. Many of those set-ups in the first set were to Kayla Bird, who did not disappoint and made several timely crosscourt spikes to the Wildcat backcourt.

Twentynine Palms started the second set quickly, surging to a 4-1 lead, but the Rangers quickly came back, taking the lead at 9-8 on a Mary Murray serve. It went to 12-11 Rangers on an Ariana Madrid slam and was then knotted at 17-17.

Mary Murray made an athletic, almost impossible block and point to move it to 19-17. The Rangers then put the set out of reach and won the at 25-19, tying the match at one set each.

In the third set, each team stayed within a few points of the other with the lead constantly changing, starting from a 4-0 lead by the Rangers to one of 6-5 favoring the Wildcats. From that point on, both teams played well and evenly as the knotted scores at 10-10, 17-17, 19-19 and finally at 23-23 seemed to say.

There were some really long points at this stage and one excellent block and return by McGavran in mid-set at 17-17 and then again at 20-19. However, the Wildcats secured the last two points and took the set 25-23 and held a 2-1 lead in sets.

The crowd, well attended by both sides despite the long trip by the Wildcat families and friends, was clearly expecting more of the same. However, it was not to be for Santa Rosa. Despite some hard-earned digs by Jozlyn Gomez, the Twentynine Palms girls ran their lead out quickly to 7-1, 8-2 and 12-3 and it never got closer from there on out. The Rangers lost the set 25-15 and the match, 3-1.

The future may be bright for the Ranger girls as all but two of the players will return next year. Ariana Madrid and Cailyn Layton are the only two seniors on the team and have played their last Santa Rosa volleyball match.

Alexis Thompson leaps to make a spike in Tuesday's CIF wild card match against Santa Rosa Academy.

Jozlyn Gomez gets in position to receive a shot during the match.