BOYS VOLLEYBALL: Crescenta Valley overtakes Tigers

Tigers watch lead go to waste

South Pasadena had a win within grasp but couldn’t hang on.
Question: Can the Tigers learn from a loss like this?

By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
SOUTH PASADENA – Things couldn’t have looked rosier for the South Pasadena High School boys volleyball team.
The Tigers were rolling along after grabbing the first two games in Wednesday’s nonleague match against visiting Crescenta Valley and seemingly didn’t have a care in the world.
Suddenly, however, South Pasadena couldn’t get back on course and suffered a five-game loss to the Falcons, 25-15, 25-12, 23-25, 26-28, 11-15.
“I think we lost a bit of our focus defensively, and it slowly got CV back in the match,” South Pasadena coach Todd Terzian said. “Crescenta Valley built up its confidence and all of a sudden won two in a row and got off to a decent start in Game 5. They got all the momentum, and we had a hard time swinging the momentum back in our favor.”
Tim Tong led the Tigers (7-5) with 14 kills, and Mark Castellanos posted seven.
Cody Carpenter paced South Pasadena with 15 digs.
David Allen, the Tigers’ top returning hitter, played in his second full match since an offseason injury. Allen collected 13 digs at libero, a position he will play for the remainder of the season.
“We have some things we need to work on,” Terzian said. “David is playing libero and we’re trying to reconfigure our offense.”
Through two games, it appeared the Tigers had more than enough hitting power to get past Crescenta Valley (4-5).
But the Falcons somehow staved off elimination with a 25-23 win in Game 3, a game in which they never trailed.
“The first two games, we were kind of going through the motions,” Crescenta Valley coach John Nelson said. “In the third game, it was like, `Hey, we’re blowing it here,’ and they kind of turned it around.
“I’m not sure what caused it, but whatever is was, I’m glad it did.”
South Pasadena appeared to be on its was to victory by grabbing a 23-21 lead in the fourth game, but the Falcons responded with three consecutive points to take a 24-23 lead.
Crescenta Valley capitalized on its fourth game-point to send the match to a deciding fifth game, in which the Falcons scored five unanswered points to snap a 9-9 deadlock before putting the match away.
“It was a huge comeback, because we lost the second game 25-12, which is on the verge of being embarrassing,” Nelson said. “They’re a good solid team and ranked in their division, and you don’t want to come out and get embarrassed like that.”
Terzian expects Wednesday’s match to help the Tigers down the road.
“We definitely need to grow as a team, and maybe this match teaches us how to deal with having a nice lead and let up a little bit,” Terzian said. “We didn’t have the strength to withstand CV’s rally.”

Facebook Twitter Plusone Reddit Tumblr Email