Varsity Girls’ Volleyball Oxford vs. CAMS 9/22/09

The girls were fresh off of their first win of the year last Thursday against Buena Park and were looking to continue their hot streak. They hoped to carry over the energy and momentum from their last win. The Varsity Boys’ Baseball team was in attendance and helped the girls get pumped up with their wild cheers after an ace or a kill.

The two teams exchanged points to start off the first game and Junior Vianca Morales was able to serve strong with an ace to give Oxford the lead 4-1. A long rally then took place that ended when Senior Alexis Medina laid out to make a diving save and hit a good spot on the opponents’ side for the point, 5-2. CAMS was able to rally and tie up the score as Oxford was losing energy, but back-to-back kills by Senior Lani Ancheta brought back momentum and gave the Patriots a two point lead, 8-6. Another long rally ended similarly as Medina made another diving save that led to an Oxford point. She followed it up with an ace to make it 10-6. CAMS fought back strong as they hit some nicely placed balls in order to narrow the deficit to 12-10. A back row kill by Medina helped Oxford keep the lead at 15-12. Morales then followed it up with another ace to make it 16-12. After Oxford forced a quick sideout, Junior Celina Vicuna was able to extend the lead to 6 points due to her strong serving. CAMS gave it one last run but Oxford forced a mistake and made the score 20-16. Sophomore Alyssa Ancheta was able to close out the game from there as she punctuated it with a couple of aces and earned Oxford the first game.

The second game opened up similarly as the two teams exchanged points, but then Morales broke up the trend with another ace to make it 4-2. CAMS then rallied behind back-to-back kills to tie up the score at 4 apiece. Oxford then had problems with passing and communication as CAMS was able to build up a huge lead at 7-15. Morales regained some of the energy with a kill to bring the score to 10-17. Lani Ancheta served strong for the Patriots, including 2 aces, to bring the girls back within 2 points, 15-17. CAMS then hit a kill but a missed serve, giving the ball right back to the Patriots. Sophomore Rochelle Paz was able to get the Patriots a 1 point lead with her serving, making it 19-18. CAMS rallied back and retook the lead at 19-21 as Oxford squandered a couple of hits. Senior Vivian Martin was able to come up with a huge block to tie up the game at 21 and fellow senior Megan Fitzpatrick came through with a kill to give the girls the lead. But poor passing by Oxford opened up the door for CAMS and they rallied through to take this game, 22-25, and tie it up and 1 game apiece.

Oxford came out flat to start off the third game as their poor passing allowed CAMS to open up a 4 point lead. But Martin was able to come through with back-to-back blocks to cut the lead in half. Senior Sophia Lee then served an ace to narrow the lead to 1 at 3-4. But CAMS came through with hard, aggressive play and took advantage of some Oxford mistakes to open up a 6 point lead at 4-10. Vicuna then had a kill but CAMS was able to get a quick sideout to make it 5-11. Alyssa Ancheta then took advantage as she hit another kill to gain some of the momentum back into Oxford’s favor. Vicuna was able to serve Oxford back within 3 points at 8-11 before CAMS got a kill and retook control. They then continued to pour it on, taking advantage of miscommunication and missed opportunities by Oxford to open up a ten point lead, 11-21. Oxford attempted to rally behind captain, Lani Ancheta as she was able to decrease the deficit to 7, 16-23. Oxford had one last shot to come back after they forced a quick sideout, but a questionable call by the ref on a ball hit into the back row ended the game at 18-25.

The girls knew that they could not lose this game so they came out strong with a kill by Vicuna to make it 2-0. They built up a 3 point lead before CAMS was finally able to get a sideout. Fitzpatrick then dished out a couple of aces for the Patriots to extend the lead to 4 points, 7-3. CAMS was able to rally back to tie up the game, but another kill by Vicuna shut them down 8-7. Morales came through with a huge block and brought the score to 10-7. The teams then exchanged points until a kill by Lani broke the trend and made it 14-10. Oxford rallied behind the serving of Morales to build up a 9 point lead, 19-10. Another kill by Alyssa got Oxford the ball back and allowed Medina to serve the rest of the way as she closed it out with her own kill, 25-14.

The two teams exchanged points to open up the final game but Oxford took control and never let go. Martin came up with a huge block to make the score 4-1. CAMS was able to get a sideout but Alyssa came right back with another kill to bring back momentum and make the score 5-2. The rallying continued as Vicuna came up with another kill of her own to extend the lead to 5, 7-2. Medina served for the majority of this game as she came up with several aces to carry Oxford out to a huge lead. A block by Morales was followed by another ace by Medina to make the score 14-2. CAMS got a final sideout, but missed the following serve to clinch the victory for the Patriots, 15-3.

The girls were able to extend their winning streak to two games as they played strong throughout the game and were able to pull out the win when it counted most. The losses of previous weeks did not factor into the Patriot mentality this game and the score showed it. The Lady Patriots now look toward a tough match up on Thursday to prove their increasing and improving development.