By Ed Piper
In a nail-biter going down to the last game of the last pair, La Jolla's beach volleyball team edged University City, 3-2, on an alternately sunny-and-cloudy Thursday afternoon, May 4, to reach the CIF Division 2 finals at Mesa College Sat., May 6.
With COVID disruption of lineups, rosters, matches, and trainings finally being pretty much put to rest, the Viking girls posted a 2-0 lead early in the afternoon on the Cent sand, the number-four, then number-two pairs sweeping to 2-0 wins (in best-of-three matches).
Then the nail-biting began--for nervous parents sitting and standing on the shady near-end of the courts behind UC's gym, and for Coach Kelly Drobeck, LJ's patient, persistent mentor who has guided the girls through the mess of COVID and beyond.
Fortunes completely reversed. The Centurions clubbed both the Vike fives, then the ones to knot the struggle at 2-2 by 5:00 p.m. (The contest began back at 3:15 p.m.)
It was up to the ongoing match with Kira Shepaski and Katie Murray in the threes, and its outcome against UC's threes. Kira had arrived late, completing a grueling multi-hour exam in AP Stats on the LJHS campus. That's why Drobeck had slotted the number-three pair to play later in the afternoon.
The LJ girls had been treated to a pre-match feast consisting of Jersey Mike's, number seven sandwiches containing turkey and cheese. "No one has barfed yet during a match," joked one of the Viking girls when a reporter asked why the number-seven order.
Murray and Shepaski's match went down to the last game. They prevailed, and La Jolla was into the finals. The title tilt is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sat., May 6, at Mesa College.
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