Fans who took off after the first two sets can be forgiven—after all, Poly had been thumped pretty hard in the first two frames of their match against Lakewood, and looked on the verge of being swept for the second consecutive time by the Lancers. Then, the (very) unexpected happened. The CIF no. 9 Jackrabbits exploded in a torrent of speed and power that’s easily the closest they’ve come this year to demonstrating their high ceiling, shocking the host no. 4 Lancers by taking the third, fourth, and fifth set to win 21-25, 13-25, 25-21, 27-25, 15-11. The comeback sets up a few different intriguing possibilities for the league title.
“I try to teach them to stay even,” said Poly coach Leland McGrath after the match. “To not get too depressed, or too up. They just kept fighting, they kept their cool.”
That they did so is incredible. Lakewood swept Poly in the Rabbits’ gym the first time they played this year, and with how the first two sets yesterday went, Poly was 0-5 in their last five sets against the Lancers. Lakewood also looked dominant in the second set, winning it 25-13 by closing out on a 19-7 run (3 of Poly’s points in that period came from Lakewood errors).
Then, McGrath challenged his team. “I just said to them, ‘Are you a baller? Are you going to fold? This is not the last match you’ll play, win or lose.'” And his team responded in a big way. When Zana Bowens—the sophomore hero of the afternoon—put down an ace to take a 9-8 lead in the third, it was the first lead Poly had held since they went up 1-0 in set two. Bowens continued to hold serve (getting the second of her third aces on a 5-0 run), and was the highlight of an impressive Poly serve game that not only produced 15 aces on the afternoon, but also consistently disrupted the Lakewood speed offense through the latter portions of the match.
Poly took a 16-12 lead, forcing Lakewood’s first timeout of the match—and when they came back from the break, they rattled off a 3-1 run that forced Lancers coach Mike Wadley into another timeout. The ‘Rabbits held on for the set win, setting up the crucial fourth frame. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of Lakewood’s Taylor Hollins (she finished with 16 kills and an ace), the Lancers maintained a five-point lead for most of the set. Megan Moenoa’s block late in the set gave Lakewood a 21-15 lead, and it seemed the outcome was certain once more. But Wadley continued to yell at his team, “Keep competing! Don’t let up!” as he had been during the first two sets.
It seemed that the wrong team took his advice to heart. Poly setter Rainette Uiato (whose setting was crisp and uptempo consistently) scored two straight aces, and the momentum began to turn. Poly concluded a 3-0 run to tie it at 23 with kills from Bowens and Litara Keil, but a service error from Poly gave Lakewood a 25-24 lead, and their second match-point opportunity.
Which is when Bria Russ tied the match on a back row kill through a triple block. That sentence is in italics because we’ve never seen someone score a point that way. With Russ evening it there, Uiato got the ‘Rabbits another point on a dump shot, and then Sa Iosia (7 kills, 4 blocks, 1 ace) scored the decider.
The fifth was all Poly—they took a quick 7-3 lead, and Lakewood never came within three for the rest of the set, as Bowens, Russ, and Keil put the Lancers away. Bowens really impressed, with five kills in the final frame. “Her energy is great,” said McGrath, who has been looking for that final spark in his talented team all season. “It’s up for the whole match.”
For Lakewood, Jazmine Orozco was effectively shadowed by Keil, but she still put up 17 kills, 3 blocks, and 2 aces to lead all scorers. Moenoa also looked versatile as always, with 6 kills and 4 blocks, along with her usual quick-setting. Poly’s leaders were Keil, with 14 kills, 3 blocks, and 5 aces; Russ, with 11 kills and 1 ace; and Bowens, with 11 kills, 1 block, and 3 aces. “[The win] feels great,” said Keil after the match. “We’ve been working so hard, and we finally got it.”
Wadley was displeased with his team’s effort in the final three sets, saying, “We let up. We should have closed out in game three and we didn’t, bottom line. They got confidence that they could beat us, and that’s what happened. Not to take anything away form them, they’re a great team, but we let up—it wasn’t their adjustments.”
This sets up a fascinating league title tilt—Lakewood and Poly are both 8-2, a half game back of Wilson, who are 8-1. The Bruins split their series with Lakewood, and have already beaten Poly once; they’ll face each other again in Poly’s gym on Thursday, November 5th at 3:45pm. If Wilson wins, they’ll be outright champs—if Poly does, we’ll have a three-team co-championship, and coin flips will determine the league seeding for the CIF playoffs. Last time Wilson and Poly played? It went five sets, and was probably the most exciting, closely contested game of the season—in other words, we can’t wait for the rematch.