Women's volleyball team eliminated from state tourney
Dec 06, 2008
The Irvine Valley women's volleyball team nearly pulled off its biggest win of the season.
But Santa Rosa came back from a two games to one deficit to beat the Lasers and then Irvine Valley was swept in its next match on Friday to get knocked out of the State Championships at Pasadena City College.
Santa Rosa, ranked third in the state and the top team from Northern California, won its 22nd consecutive match in beating eighth-ranked IVC, 25-19, 19-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12
Santa Rosa improved its record to 33-1 overall.
Santa Rosa took control in the pivotal fifth game with a pair of kills by All-American Ayeesha Ellis and then capped the match win on drop kill by another All-American Turea Jones.
Santa Rosa had four players reach double figures in kills with Liz Tomforde leading the way with 17 kills. Danielle Loyola added 15 kills and five blocks, Ellis hit .355 with 14 kills, and Jones added 12 kills and a team-best 22 digs.
Setter Elise Carroll contributed 53 assists and made 11 digs.
Irvine Valley hit poorly with 30 attack errors and a .083 percentage, but did have a strong serving match with 14 aces, including six by Camryn Torromeo.
Amanda Donaldson tallied a match-high 26 digs and Nichole May added 23 digs with 10 kills. All-State selection Marilena Guadagnini chipped in 10 kills, 13 digs and three aces.
Casey Williams scored 12 kills.
Santa Rosa advances to the winner’s bracket with a 10 a.m. Saturday match against Big 8 Conference foe Sacramento City.
The Lasers had to turn around and play El Camino about 30 minutes after their draining loss to Santa Rosa.
The Lasers, the Orange Empire Conference champions, became the region’s first casualty at the hands of the state-defending champion Warriors. El Camino won, 25-19, 25-12, 25-18.
El Camino hit .319 in the sweep. Irvine Valley finished the tourney tied with Feather River in seventh place.
El Camino rebounded from its shaky performance in a four-game loss to Sacramento City earlier in the evening.
The Warriors were led by Amrita Tuladhar, who hit .615 with eight kills in just 13 attempts. Both Kara Cummings and Jo Tulikihihifo recorded nine kills each and Ashley Hardy added seven kills. Setter Sam Taylor tallied 34 assists, 11 digs and three aces. Libero Karina Woehrstein totaled 16 digs.
“I told our players after we lost the first match that we can do one of two things,” said ECC Coach Le Valley Pattison. “We can play volleyball, actually play the way that got us to the tournament, or we can roll over and die. Against Irvine Valley, that was the type of volleyball that we’re capable of playing.
"The rest between matches helped, but also having five tournament-experienced players from last year’s team certainly helped us as well. They realized what we needed to do.”
Irvine Valley struggled with an .047 hitting percentage against the Warriors as Williams was the team’s top hit leader with just seven kills.
Setter Allie Hammer had 22 assists and Alyssa Swatek made 10 digs.
“Hey, we were in a tough bracket,” IVC Coach Tom Pestolesi said. “We knew what we were up against once we lost to Santa Rosa. If you were going to tell me that early in the season, we would win the conference title and make it into the Final 8, I’d have been ecstatic.
"And that’s how we can look at this season. We had a great bunch of kids, and my coaching staff did a fine job. It was a positive experience.”