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The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Long Beach Poly flexed its muscle and clinched at least a share of the Moore League girls’ volleyball title with a 25-10, 25-19, 25-15 sweep of Lakewood at home on Thursday evening. The Jackrabbits (17-10, 9-0) are two wins away from an undefeated league championship.
“We’re hungry for it,” said Poly coach Gerald Aquiningoc of the undefeated title. “We don’t want to share. We shared it last year and we didn’t like it.”
Poly was dominant throughout the match thanks to a balanced attack and superior service. Sophomore Cedra Talaga had a team-high nine kills and Aleeya Salima chipped in seven kills while eight different Jackrabbits recorded a kill.
“Games like these (against rivals) will help us in the playoffs,” Talaga said. “Lakewood came out strong and extended the rallies and I felt like we did a good job responding to that. Defensively we’ve learned to put a ball away in transition.”
Jackrabbits setter Hannah Ballungay fed five different hitters down the stretch in the first set to put it away 25-10.
“It’s very important as a setter to spread the ball around,” Ballungay said. “Offensively we focus on the middle, and then go outside. I think that plays a part (in balanced attack). I focus on who is on fire, but that starts in the middle.”
“Our setters look at blocking matchups,” Aquiningoc said. “We know we don’t have an attacker who is going to get 30 kills, we need everybody to be on so we work a lot on playing in transition and first-ball side out. We know where to go in every phase, and we have (multiple players) who can put the ball away.”
In the middle for Poly it was Kristen Dear and team-captain Layla Moore leading the way. They combined for nine kills and eight blocks.
“We do a lot of serve receive and defense in practice, and it’s always really competitive, so it’s long rallies and that really helps and (defense) gives us huge momentum,” Moore said.
“Layla is super efficient,” Aquiningoc said. “She doesn’t get the big highlights but she does an amazing job. She’s our best blocker, she’s our leader and she does a great job always drawing that middle blocker every time, whether she gets the kill or not, she does what she needs to do.”
Poly had 12 service aces as a team and Ballungay had a team-high four aces.
Lakewood showed great fight in the second set and led 13-12 behind great play from Lala Hall. She finished with seven kills and four aces.
“Tonight was a tough match for us,” Lakewood coach Adam Wadley said. “Poly is a well coached team and their athleticism gave us problems the entire night. We’ve had a really tough schedule this year on purpose, so we can get ready for a deep playoff run. It stings to lose, but we have to keep moving forward to extend our season. I tell the team all the time, I love this team and our goal when we get to the playoffs is to practice one more day with each other.”
The Jackrabbits have Millikan and Wilson left on the schedule next week. Lakewood hosts Jordan on Thursday.
