Posted on 29 October 2013 by La Habra Journal
Ashly Hernandez reacts quickly to an attack by Troy in La Habra’s 3-0 loss, Tuesday night.
by Nathan Percy
La Habra Journal
In the first meeting between the La Habra and Troy girls’ volleyball teams, the Lady Highlanders forced Troy to work for nearly every point, despite getting swept.
When the teams met for the second time, Tuesday night, the result was the same, but La Habra’s energy level was lacking in a 25-17, 25-9, 25-14 defeat at Troy High.
The loss snapped La Habra’s four-game league win streak.
“They just weren’t focused enough tonight and my concern is that this rolls into Thursday,” said Adrianne Spear, La Habra head coach. “It’s always tough to play here, but they just were not prepared enough for this match. Maybe others it would be okay, but not against this team. I just didn’t see the same fire I saw last time we faced them.”
The Lady Warriors’ offense kept in rhythm for the majority of the match, resulting in 38 assists for Julie Kim and 12 kills each for outside hitters Kayla Chapman and Alison Beattie.
On the other hand, the decrease in focus led to a sporadic offense for the Lady Highlanders, as Ashly Hernandez tallied 17 assists and Lexi Kolschefski led the team with nine kills. Ryana Murch added six kills for the Lady Highlanders.
Corinne Bell places an attack against Troy, Tuesday night. Bell did not play in the first set of the Lady Highlanders’ 3-0 defeat.
To top it all off, the Lady Highlanders played without senior outside hitter Corinne Bell for the first set.
However, the opening set was the most competitive for La Habra, which battled Troy tough at the outset.
But with the score knotted at 4-4, Troy started to pull away. When the Highlanders pulled close at 8-7, the Lady Warriors again gained separation.
Chapman led the charge with four kills in the first set, while Murch matched that total to lead La Habra, but ultimately, it was errors on offense that hurt La Habra late.
Troy rode that momentum into the second set, using a 7-0 run to gain a big advantage. From that point on, the Lady Warriors earned a sideout on every La Habra serve.
An attempt to regroup before the third set worked only for a short time for the Lady Highlanders.
Beattie pounded the Lady Highlanders back line, earning seven kills and two aces in the set as Troy finished off the sweep quickly.
Spear said that the team utilized some of tonight’s efforts into game-planning for Thursday’s game against Sonora, which the head coach considers a huge challenge.
“We just have to leave this behind and focus on Thursday,” Spear said. “My biggest concern and my next goal is that we have to beat Sonora, it’s a match that can go either way, but I think we’ll be okay.”
The match will be played at La Habra High at 5:30 p.m.
