LJ g VB 3, Point Loma 1

The Vikings (in red jerseys) prepare to defend against
a Pointer attack midway through the two-hour
non-league tussle. (Photos by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

After dropping the first game, then squaring up the volleyball match at Point Loma Tues., Aug. 21, with a win in the second game, La Jolla's girls trailed the host Pointers 11-4 in the third game.

"This is your chance to step up," second-year Viking coach Kelly Drobeck told her team.

From there, the visitors outscored their opponents 21-11 to win the game, giving them the confidence and momentum to close out the early-season match with a 3-1 victory.

A crucial kill came from senior Maya Lightfoot at 22-20 in that crucial third game, after which the 6'1" middle hitter let out a shout.

Coach Kelly Drobeck (in black shirt) holds counsel
with her team during a timeout early in the first
game, which the Vikings dropped before
winning three in a row.
 

There were other key hits as well, with 6'3" junior returner Leyla Blackwell leading the way with 23 kills in the match. Maya Gessner, a left-handed outside hitter, landed the final blow with a kill to end the fourth game, 25-19.

There were lots of plaudits deserving all the way around. The Vikings, with a total makeover from last year, showed they could respond when things were going against them.

"Setting higher expectations," is the way Drobeck, a long-time coach previously at Cathedral Catholic, described the new, more demanding tone she has set since the opening tryout two weeks ago.

At that practice August 6, she told the assembled girls, "I don't care if you were on the varsity last year, two years ago, or three years ago. It's how you play now." She was sending a message that the status quo of last year's difficult season would not be allowed to continue. Some members of that 2017 squad are not back this year.

As part of the new regimen, Drobeck, who always smiles despite her intensity, ran candidates through runs up and down the stadium steps, and laps around the track. It obviously wasn't designed to make things easy.