Photo By Stephen Dachman
The classic idiom says, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” But that motto doesn’t take into account that if you’re restoring it, you aren’t really fixing it. You’re making it as it was before.
That’s exactly what Lakewood coach Mike Wadley did last night for the first-round CIF Playoff game at home against Thousand Oaks. The restoration worked as the Lancers seemed unbeatable at times like they did in September, and rolled to an easy victory, 25-10, 25-11, 25-19.
After some tough losses to Wilson and Poly in the second round of Moore League play, Wadley and the Lancers were looking for a spark, and it came Tuesday night when he returned senior Taylor Hollins to the middle and moved sophomore Chissy Tuua to the outside.
Hollins has played in the middle since starting club volleyball at fifteen-years-old and Tuua loves to play the outside where she can swing freely. So, how did the shuffle work out? Just look at the score.
While senior Jazmine Orozco led the way with 10 kills, Hollins filled the stat sheet with nine kills and three blocks. Tuua added five kills on six swings, and after the match, Wadley had a Mad Hatter smile wider than the Lancer margin of victory.
“We started our playoffs practice last week so we’ve picked up the intensity,” said Wadley, who’s team looked more than rejuvenated compared to the team that let Poly win three straight sets on the same floor less than two weeks ago. “This is the playoffs. The monotony and grind of the season is tough… we’re ready to go. We want to keep playing.”
The first set looked like the Lancers were ready to play in a CIF semifinal as Hollins and Megan Moenoa combined on back-to-back blocks to give Lakewood a 10-5 lead. More solid play and three kills from Orozco helped the Lancers go on a 15-5 run. Five of Thousand Oaks’ ten points in the set were on Lakewood service errors and double hits.
“I was a little nervous before, but it was a lot of fun,” said Hollins of her return to the middle. “We got a lot of confidence in practice because now people have to respect our swings in the middle.”
Those swings in the middle don’t just come from Hollins because Tyler Jackson is attacking from the back line as well. The junior had seven kills on the night, and back-to-back aces in the second set keyed an early 12-1 run that broke a 7-7 tie.
Thousand Oaks fought back in the third set as Katie Deamer, Karis Schneider and Jillian Johnson all played well, but it was only enough to tie it at 17. The Lancers went around the horn to complete the sweep as a Jackson kill tied it at 17, an Orozco kill made it 18-17, a Moenoa dump shot made it 19-17 and back-to-back Hollins kills effectively ended the night.
All things considered after an up-and-down month for this squad, how excited are these new-look Lancers for a CIF Playoff run? While coach Wadley was talking to the media about that exact thing, he turned to his girls who were taking the net down in the Lancer Gym.
“Hey girls, you can just leave that up,” said Wadley.
A girl turned quickly, “we know, we’re putting up a new one.”
If it was possible, the Mad Hatter smile got bigger. “We’re ready.”
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