Lady Falcons rebound with strong showing
The Torrey Pines Lady Falcons (3-1) girls volleyball team, ranked No. 3 in the county, shut out the No. 9-ranked Poway Lady Titans (8-3) on Oct. 2 by the scores of 25-20, 25-15, and 25-19.
After losing to a strong Laguna Beach team last week in non-league action, Torrey Pines responded with a strong effort.
“This is a good rebound win after a tough loss to Laguna Beach,” said Lady Falcons Head Coach Jim Harrah. “We had a great week of practice. We have a great group, with great spirit and chemistry and today we beat a good Poway team. I was a little nervous before this match. I just wanted to see how we would respond and we did a great job today.”
Because of a change in league alignments, Torrey Pines will compete in all sports this year in the Avocado League and not in the Palomar League, considered the tougher of the two leagues. Last year in Palomar La Costa Canyon won their fourth straight CIF Div. 1 championship in girls volleyball, with Torrey Pines reaching the semi-finals. The Avocado League features Torrey Pines’ San Dieguito District rival La Costa Canyon along with Fallbrook, Escondido, Mission Hills, and San Pasqual.
“I would have preferred to stay in the Palomar,” said Harrah, “because of the tough competition from all the teams. This year in the Avocado, it will probably be a two-team race between us and LCC, with Fallbrook coming on strong. We will be strong again.” La Costa Canyon is ranked No.1 in the nation in girls volleyball and is still the only San Diego section school undefeated so far this season.
Before each match, the home team puts players’ iPod songs into the sound system to pump up the athletes during the warm-ups. The next to last song at the Torrey Pines gymnasium was DJ Khaled’s “We’re Taking Over.”
The Lady Falcons did just that in game one.
Torrey Pines jumped out to a 5-2 lead on University of Colorado-bound Kerra “Boo” Schroeder’s kill. The Lady Titans closed the gap at 9-8 with blocks by Mariah Horvath and Laura Barker, but, Torrey Pines’ Whitney Wilkerson served four straight points pushing the Lady falcons lead to 14-9. Later Poway’s Katie Fraccalvieri served four straight points putting the Lady Titans within striking distance at 21-19, but Alexa Armstrong countered with a monster kill and the Lady Falcons went on to win the game 25-20.
Game two was tied four times with five lead changes, and with Torrey Pines up 10-9, Whitney Wilkerson reeled off nine straight service points. Game point came on a Lady Titans ball that went out of bounds. The Lady Falcons were up 2-0.
Game three had five ties and six lead changes until the Lady falcons stretched their lead to 11-6, aided by Jenny Woolway’s four straight service points, and one of Schroeder’s match-high kills. Schroeder then reeled-off seven straight service points giving her team a commanding 17-10 lead. The game and match point fittingly came on a Schroeder kill.
Leading the way for the Lady Falcons was Schroeder, with 12 kills, two blocks and seven service points. Jenny Woolway added 11 service points and 31 assists, and Lexi Campbell contributed seven kills, two blocks, and five service points including one ace.