TOLOGS fall to Harvard-Westlake in CIF title match
Flintridge Sacred Heart's goal of winning the CIF-Southern Section Division I-A championship fell one game short at Mission League rival Harvard-Westlake defeated the Tologs in four games, 24-26, 25-7, 25-21, 25-21 at Cypress College.
Sacred Heart's Samantha Orlandini (5) stands alone with her thoughts as Harvard Westlake beat the Tologs for the CIF-SS Division I-A championship. (Pasadena Star-News Staff Photo Keith Birmingham)
Flintridge Sacred Heart head coach Shelli Orlandini holds the runner-up trophy after Harvard Westlake beat the Tologs for the CIF championship. (Pasadena Star-News Staff Photo Keith Birmingham)
By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
CYPRESS - In volleyball, momentum is a powerful thing.
It's an element of the game that provides confidence and a sense of being unbeatable.
Flintridge Sacred Heart's girls volleyball team had a hold of the momentum for a game against Harvard-Westlake in Saturday's CIF-Southern Section Division I-A finals.
The Wolverines, however, wrestled it away and never gave it back in a four-game victory over the Tologs, 24-26, 25-7, 25-21, 25-21, at Cypress College's Charger Gymnasium.
Harvard-Westlake (26-5) earned its first Southern Section girls volleyball title since 2001, and the Tologs (28-6) fell just short of winning their first title since 1997.
It was the third loss to the Wolverines this season, fourth dating back to last year, and all but eliminated Flintridge Sacred Heart from the CIF-State playoff picture.
Emily Waterhouse paced the Wolverines with 19 kills, and sophomore Megan Norton had 18.
The Tologs had trouble with the front-court presence of Harvard-Westlake's 6-foot-1 middle blocker tandem Krystle Higgins and Cathryn Quinn.
Higgins led the Wolverines with seven blocks, and Quinn collected 13 kills.
"If we're going to win a match like this, we have to be able to stay in long rallies," Tologs coach Shelli Orlandini said.
Katie Condon's 15 kills led the Tologs, and Megan Meyers had 10.
Flintridge Sacred Heart's defense did its part to keep the Tologs in the match.
Jenna Orlandini collected 36 digs, and her sister, Sam Orlandini, had 33 digs.
The match took a 180-degree turn between the first and second games.
Harvard-Westlake had game point at 24-22, but the Tologs took advantage of a pair of crucial unforced errors to win the game.
That's when the roof fell in on Flintridge Sacred Heart.
Harvard-Westlake snapped a 3-3 tie in game two by outscoring the Tologs 20-2 to take an insurmountable 23-5 advantage and tie the match.
"I'm not sure what happened, I felt like the first game was so exciting and we came back and battled," Flintridge Sacred Heart outside hitter Katie Condon said. "In the second game, I guess we gave up and stopped trying.
"We know we're all much better than that."
Added Orlandini: "I'd like to play the second game again. I think that mentally put a damper on the girls and we had to fight that much harder."
Her team continued to fight as Condon's hard kill gave the Tologs a 20-19 lead in the third game.
But Harvard-Westlake scored six of the last seven points to take control of the match.
The Wolverines snapped an 8-8 deadlock in Game 4 by outscoring FSHA 9-2 and coasted from there.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
Get your tickets to see the best team in the area on Tuesday night.
HW fans show some class. I just watch the viedo of the match, give FSHA some credit, other than the 2nd. game it was a very close match. And remenber FSHA took HW too 5 games during league play.
Good luck at state.
Go TOLOGS
Wahhhhhhhh!
Harvard Westlake fan continues to further expand on classless behavior. Nice!!!
Don't be bitter...the Wolverines will probably win 6 straight matches against FSHA in the coming seasons. Maybe if more girls from FSHA go over to SMBC and Sports Shack it will only be 4 more losses.
Harvard Westlake fan...I'm sorry you are behind the eight ball. The topic changed a ways back. We have been speaking of you as it relates to your lack of class and basic comprehension skills.
FSHA is old news...next topic.
Harvard Westlake Fan still misinformed...and still without Class!!!.
And time after time- Harvard Westlake wins the battle.
FSHA best in D4- don't think so. Maybe 5th best.
Havard Westlake is in Division 3 as far as the state is concerned(school population). FSHA is in division 4 as far as the state is concerned (school population). If FSHA had beat HW...they both would have gone to State and not played each other but in their respective divisions.
FSHA has always had to compete with the big girls in CIF...Divison 1.
For such a small school they should be commended for doing so well.
The best team from CIF SS Division 4...FSHA will not be at state simply because of screwy CIF SS rules. No other section does what CIF SS does in the state.
Harvard Westlake pays big money for coaches in all sports. FSHA does not put the same emphasis on sports. However year in and year out FSHA always show up to play. Just like they did on Saturday.
Cubs fan, you know you can make a positive comment about your team on the post about them winning the title.
It's come down to complaining about which reporter goes to a game?
John knows quite a bit about volleyball, so it's not like you got a rookie out there.
As far as FSHA having little chance against Harvard-Westlake, I think you're reaching for straws.
It would have been fun had FSHA won because they may have met up with Mayfield in the state playoffs.
We'll never know what the outcome would be.
Although it wasn't nearly as exciting as the last time those two teams met up, the match between FSHA and Harvard-Westlake was far more interesting to watch than Mira Costa and Redondo Union. Not to take away anything from Mayfield's match, but it was high-intensity, high-quality volleyball on both sides.
FSHA does not get into the State playoffs. Guess nobody wanted to see a 4th loss to HW.
Nice to see that you cover the match that clearly the local team had little chance of winning instead of covering the match of the local winning team that was heavily favored. That was a pretty classy move Galetti. It was almost as classy as sending down a stringer to our championship game. Thanks for your non-interest.