Paloma Valley loses volleyball playoff opener to Millikan

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Paloma Valley High’s girls volleyball team has had great success in the postseason in recent years, but this time it was not meant to be.

A talented visiting Millikan High team led most of the way in all three sets on the way to a sweep of the Wildcats by scores of 25-21, 25-15, 25-18 Tuesday night in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs. The loss dropped Paloma Valley’s overall record to a final mark of 13-11.

As coach Stephen Kaas mentioned afterward, it has been a season of ups and downs for the Wildcats. They opened the season losing four of their first six games but rallied late in the season, winning six straight at one point on the way to winning a fourth consecutive Ivy League championship.

Millikan (14-6) came in as the third-place team from the Moore League but played like anything other than a third-place squad. The Rams jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the first set, were caught twice (15-15 and 16-16), but Paloma couldn’t grab the lead, as Millikan used good ball movement and solid play at the net for the early advantage.

The scoring differential was similar in the second set, although several kills by Wildcats senior Alexa Rosales kept it from being a blowout. The Rams used a tip and a service ace for the final two points of the 25-15 victory.

Paloma Valley showed more life in the third set and led 9-8 before Millikan began to take control. Frequent kills by Aaliyah Fasavalu and some service aces accounted for points near the end of the decisive 25-18 victory.

“We’ve been up and down, with some good matches and some bad matches,” Kaas said. “It would’ve been nice to win this one, but we’re playing against a quality opponent and you can’t give anything away.”

Rosales led the Wildcats with 10 kills and Mia Rosas had 5.