Hamlet Nalbandyan
Nancy Tinkham called it a "forgetful error" on her team's part, and
was it ever forgetful.
For about five minutes Wednesday night, the Flintridge Sacred
Heart Academy volleyball coach thought her team had taken the first
game from Mission League rival North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake.
That was until a service rotation error gave the Wolverines a
second chance, one which Jess Quiroz's squad took full advantage of.
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BOX SCORE
*--*
*--*
Flint. Sac. Heart 25 25 16 20
Harvard-Westlake 27 19 25 25
*--*
*--*
FLINTRIDGE SACRED HEART
Smiland 17 kills and 17 digs, Kriste 12 kills, Beeton 9 kills, Herbert 7 kills and 5 blocks, Esser 41 assists, Withers 16 digs.
HARVARD-WESTLAKE
Felder 18 kills and 12 digs, Naylor 12 kills, Shapiro 8 kills, Julian 7 kills and 40 assists, Fine 10 digs, Reyes 5 blocks.
*--*
Harvard-Westlake eventually defeated the Tologs in four games,
27-25, 19-25, 25-16, and 25-20, but it was a strange turn of events
late in the first game that had everyone talking.
The Tologs (5-8, 2-1 in league) thought they had won the game,
26-24, and were getting prepared to do battle in the second game when
the officials ordered the teams back on the court to resume the
first game.
Apparently, Flintridge Sacred Heart, ranked No. 4 in CIF Southern
Section Division IVAA, had lost track of who was supposed to serve,
and served out of rotation.
"Our scorekeeper told the official twice before she served that
they had the wrong girl up," Quiroz said. "After [Flintridge Sacred
Heart won the game], I went to the official and told them they can't
end it like that."
Given second life, the Wolverines (10-6, 2-1 in league) watched
the Tologs make back-to-back hitting errors, giving them the victory.
Although Flintridge Sacred Heart came back to win the second
game, it was clear that the first-game blunder haunted them the
entire night.
"That's the mental part of the game," Tinkham said. "You have to
stay focused. That's just an unexplainable error on our part.
"When we lost the first game like that, it was hard to get the
momentum back."
Despite 17 kills and 17 digs from Kelly Smiland, and another
strong effort from senior Brittany Esser (41 assists and five kills),
Flintridge Sacred Heart -- which shared the league title with the
Wolverines (winners of five CIF crowns in the past eight years) in
2001, snapping their 88-match league winning streak -- lost steam in
the third and fourth.
In the third, Harvard-Westlake turned a 9-8 advantage into a
commanding 21-12 lead in just a matter of seconds, thanks to
numerous hitting errors.
In the fourth, Flintridge Sacred Heart couldn't hold on to a 13-12
advantage, as the duo of Brittany Julian and Frannie Felder carried
the Wolverines to victory.
Julian, a freshman, finished with 40 assists and seven kills and
Felder, a senior, had a match-high 18 kills, including putaways that
gave Harvard-Westlake its 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 25th points.
"Harvard-Westlake is a great team, but we feel we can compete with
them, and possibly beat them in our own gym," Tinkham said.
