Girls' volleyball: Taft escapes Birmingham upset bid in five games

The Birmingham girls' volleyball team had a golden opportunity to finally beat Taft and earn a share of second place in the West Valley League but couldn't protect a two game lead and lost in five Thursday.

Taft (10-5, 7-1) somehow managed to climb out of the hole for a 22-25, 15-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-12 victory.

Taft pulled off the season sweep after easily defeating the Patriots (7-3, 5-3) in three games at Birmingham three weeks ago.

"We were down and it wasn't good but we just let it go and moved on," Taft middle blocker Cieana Stinson said. "Each game starts 0-0 so we just had to think about the future and not the past."

Birmingham easily won the first two games and had chances in the last three. No team had more than a three point lead in the final three games but Taft was able to pull away more often.

In the deciding game, Birmingham hurt itself with two critical service errors and two hitting errors.

"It was a good match and they fought hard but we have to learn how to play five," Birmingham coach Dave Lertzman said.

Stinson and Tamar Fowler had 18 and 14 kills, respectively to lead Taft.

Naz Malal had 49 assists and Taylor Kline had 17 digs.

"The took away certain things and we had to make some adjustments," Taft coach Arman Mercado said. "We train everyday in practice to go five games. I told the girls lets always try and take two out of four against good teams and then take our chances in a game five."

Danetta Boykin led the Patriots with 26 kills.

Nancy Nguyen had 37 assists and Jennifer Serrano had 15 digs.

"I think they just warmed up and got going," Boykin said. "They got in a rhythm. It went back and forth. We just play hard and whatever happens is the way it goes."