Published: Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Prep Girls Volleyball: Mission Prep Royals win regional playoff opener
Mission Prep sweeps Pacifica Christian in Southern California regional playoff
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeThe Mission Prep girls volleyball team didn’t start fast.
But when it got down to crunch time, the Royals finished swiftly in a 25-22, 27-25, 25-22 CIF-Southern California Division V playoff home win over Pacifica Christian on Tuesday.
Trailing 20-17 in the first game, after already having been down by as many as five points earlier, Royals coach Michelle Lakey called a timeout to settle her team down.
“I told the team, ‘We’re beating ourselves,’” Lakey said. “We had six serving errors to that point and five hitting errors. That’s what caused us to be in that position.”
The Royals (27-6) won eight of the next 10 points en route to a first-game victory.
The second game started much the same as the first, with Mission Prep falling behind early.
“They were definitely fighting for it,” Mission Prep middle hitter Danielle Brescia said.
The Royals eventually took their first lead of the second game at 16-15. After an Andrea Fernandez kill for Mission Prep, the Sea Wolves took the next five points to claim a 20-17 lead.
But the Royals again battled back down the stretch, fighting off Pacifica Christian’s lone game point of the match on a kill by Brescia. Tied at 25, Sadie Casacca drove home one of her six kills to give Mission Prep its second game point.
Brescia led the Royals with a match-high 14 kills, adding three digs and two aces.
Pacifica Christian (20-9) couldn’t handle Brescia early, as she collected 10 kills in the first two games and adjusted by sending players further back in an attempt to nullify her power.
With the defenders playing off, Brescia found success with a light tip over the blockers on several occasions.
“They were definitely pulled further back and we saw that and read it,” Brescia said. “Thank God it worked repeatedly. It was nice to use it that often.”
Although she was having success with the tip, Brescia said that as a power hitter, she oftentimes struggles to play a finesse game.
“It’s so hard (to not hit with power),” Brescia said. “I get super excited whenever it’s a good set and I know I can connect. But if you see the block and know you can’t hit around it then the tip is your best option.”
After losing two narrow games, some of the fight seemed to leave Pacifica Christian early on in game three.
Brescia and Fernandez powered Mission Prep to a 15-9 lead to start the third game. Facing five match points down 24-19, Pacifica Christian rallied for three points before bowing out.
Fernandez finished with eight kills, six digs and three blocks while Casacca added a team-high 10 digs.
The Royals, seeded second in the Southern California region of the state championships, will host the winner of Saddleback Valley Christian and San Diego Jewish Academy on Saturday.
“It’s wonderful (not having to travel),” Lakey said. “Especially during the holidays. It’s nice to be here and we can practice here the day before. We’re home in our environment and it’s very fun.”
Brescia said she was just happy to continue playing, regardless of where the matches take place.
“I didn’t want this to be my last game,” Brescia said. “It’s really important for our team to keep playing and we want to keep winning at home.”
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.