By Ed Piper
La Jolla's talented beach volleyball squad had its number two, three, and four pairs sweep OLP--each duo winning 2-0--as the Vikings thundered over the Pilots to secure their CIF quarterfinal playoff Tues., May 2, on their home sand at South Mission Beach.
Twos Katie Murray and Kira Shepaski, threes Lana Ferrell and Bradleigh Ryan, and fours Grayson Lejuwaan and Mia Jessen each skillfully bulled their way to two-game best-of-three shutouts of their OLP counterparts. Thus, the three duos gained the three wins that La Jolla needed to prevail in the match.
In Coach Kelly Drobeck's alignment, her team didn't even need ones Lindsay Laumann and Paisley Mahn and fives Anais Lavoie and Natalie Fu to win in the later afternoon to move on to the CIF Division 2 semifinals Thurs., May 4. So, though Laumann-Mahn and Lavoie-Fu played and won, they didn't even count the scores since they weren't weren't necessary.
Drobeck explained that normally the Vikings would start their twos, fours, and sixes in the first part of the afternoon match (sixes not counting in the five-pair scoring, but keeping the sixes active and competing). With Advanced Placement (AP) test(s) Wednesday at school, some players needed to get home after the match to study for the college-credit exams.
The ones are held in reserve, till the "second round" of the afternoon, with the thinking in a tight match that their result would help determine the team's outcome. On this day, the ones weren't necessary.
The Vikings are seeded number three in the lower end of the bracket, meeting second-seed University City in the semis at UCHS's campus courts Thurs., May 4. Atop the bracket, La Costa Canyon is one and Country Day is two. OLP was seeded 11th.
La Jolla continues to compete using the prevailing model of club/school teams to achieve and maintain excellence. Athletes stay active in their main sport through club play under expert coaching in the offseason, when school teams are not in competition.
Thus, the girls are able to compete with classmates during the Spring season. They often comment on the pluses of "playing with our friends" for healthy and fun relationship-building. Meanwhile, in club/travel programs, they grow up learning and perfecting their main sport with instruction from near-full-time coaches expert in volleyball. The latter is a pay-for-play system.
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