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The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Lakewood was unable to keep their playoff streak going on Saturday in the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs, falling in a tough semi finals matchup to visiting Corona via sweep, 15-25, 17-25, 14-25.
Prior to this season, Lakewood hadn’t made it to the semifinals in the playoffs since their 2010 season, and fought back to win two five set matches in the last week against Summit and La Salle to do so. The Lancers will move onto the CIF State playoffs when brackets are released next Sunday, Nov. 10.
“Honestly throughout that match and the whole weekend it just looked like we were gassed,” said first-year coach Adam Wadley. “We played back-to-back five setters a couple days ago and earlier this week and it just looked like our fatigue caught up to us, unfortunately at the wrong time.”
Corona brought an athletic and lengthy group led by 6-foot-1 middle hitter Hannah Hass, who finished the night with eight kills. Hass also added three blocks for a strong front line for the Panthers that totaled up nine blocks with five different players recording a block.
“Corona is a really good team,” added Wadley. “They have really strong outsides and their M1 is very good. I think their athleticism gave us a lot of trouble in the beginning so we had a harder time adjusting in the first set.”
The Lancers opened the second set on a 4-0 service run from Carly Bercero before a quick 11-2 run by Corona. Lakewood would come back within two points before a 6-0 run to end the set by the Panthers which included a lengthy service run by Corona’s Hass. Hass finished the night with seven aces.
“They serve tough. They won the match through their serve and pass. I told our girls before the game that if we wanted to win we’d have to serve tough and pass good on serve receive, but Corona did that. Hats off to them, they played really well and it showed especially on that service run in the second set.”
Lakewood was forced to rearrange their lineup after a minor injury in the third, and Wadley said he began giving different players opportunities to see what they could do differently.
“It was just trying to see what we can do when we change things and see what they do differently. We were just seeing if we could adjust a bit easier.”
Lakewood received a game-high 10 kills from Lala Hall while Kelsey Stephenson chipped in four and Tristin Foafoa had four. Bercero added a game-high 15 assists.
Alongside Hass’s eight kills, Hannah Coffee had five while Amelia Bonnema and Avery Fahrendholz both threw in four. Paige Geiger racked up 13 assists while Trinity Hovenier had seven.
After the game, Wadley spoke about the emotions of his team from the loss. He says that they’ll be right back to practice soon to get ready for state playoffs.
“It’s bittersweet that our journey ends in (CIF-SS) but we still have a lot more volleyball to play together so we will be back together again and still practicing. Our season is not done yet and it sucks right now, but in a couple of days we’ll feel a little bit better when we get to practice again.”
