By John Honell, Correspondent
LA VERNE – Delayed by traffic and no GPS, Bonita Vista High School took more than four hours to drive from Chula Vista for the opening round of the Southern California State-CIF Division II playoff match against second-seeded St. Lucy’s. It will seem like a much longer ride home as the Regents (28-6) defeated the Barons in four games, 26-24, 25-17, 17-25, 25-17 on Tuesday at Damien High. (To continue click thread)
CIF-State Playoffs — Division II
Saturday’s Southern California Regional Quarterfinals
St. Lucy’s (28-6) vs. Downey (27-5), Damien HS, 7 p.m.
La Salle (20-6) at La Costa Canyon (29-8), 7 p.m.
The Regents will host the winner of the Madera-Downey match on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Damien.
The Regents jumped out to a quick 12-4 lead in the first game after senior defensive specialist Ashley Rivera served for five points, including two aces.
“That’s always the plan,” Rivera said. “We knew they were going to be tough, we had to stay focused then we had kind of a rough patch. But we got back together and pulled it out.”
The Regents appeared to lose focus, committed several mental errors and appeared confused on their defensive rotation as the Barons finally tied the game at 18-18.
“They’re a scrappy team,” Regents coach Sean Douglas said. “They don’t have a set offense but they move the ball around. We just waited for the ball to come to us and if you’re not going to be proactive, that will happen.”
The Regents forced two errors for the final two points and a 26-24 win.
“We had trouble in that first game because of the delay,” senior Jackie Macy said. “It didn’t bother us at first but we were really ready to play when we first got in the gym. Then we had a letdown but we got it back.”
The Regents won the first two games and looked like they were ready to coast into the second round on Saturday.
The Barons weren’t ready to get back on their bus just yet. They broke a 5-5 tie and gradually pulled away to a 25-17 win and appeared to have all the momentum.
The fourth game featured eight ties before the Regents took a 15-14 lead and forced the Barons to take a timeout.
“It took a while to get used to this team,” Macy said. “We finally got used to them but it took a lot longer. Coach just said, `Take this game away from them, this is our gym and let’s do it.”‘
With the game tied at 14, senior Libero Arianna Sifuentes served for six consecutive points and the Regents got the final point on a kill by Dianna Roher.
Roher and Vanessa Caustrita led the Regents with 10 kills each. Macy ran the offense and finished with 34 assists.
“We had nine net violations in game three,” Douglas said. “We kind of gave them the game. Once we started becoming active again you could see the difference in the match. This sport is all about discipline, if you’re going to stay there and wait for the ball, it’s going to go against us.”
