LODI VOLLEYBALL FALLS TO RAMS
Members of the Lodi High volleyball team were looking to establish momentum against one of the toughest Tri-City Athletic League squads.
But there are reasons why St. Mary’s had an 18-1 overall record entering Wednesday’s meeting at The Inferno. Correction — the Rams are 19-1.
Lodi jumped out to a fivepoint lead in the third set. But the visiting Rams rallied to sweep the Flames 3-0; the final scores were 25-18, 25-18, 2520.
In the early part of the third set, Lodi (10-10 and 0-2 in the TCAL) and St. Mary’s (2-0 in the TCAL) exchanged leads. Then Lodi took a 14-13 lead thanks to a St. Mary’s serving error. Grace Diaz and Kaylie Sauerland contributed at the net for the Flames; Diaz had four kills in the match and Sauerland three.
On top of that, Lodi’s Morgan Orlando served the team’s next three points that included two aces for an 18-13 score. After St. Mary’s made it 18-15 thanks to Lodi hitting errors, the Flames upped their lead to 20-15, as two points came off more Ram service errors.
Lodi had consistent hustle play from three-year starter Katie Petersen, a senior libero, plus Sauerland, Diaz, Riley Woznick, Orlando and Gianna Mora. There was the strong net play in keeping rallies going from Sauerland, plus Diaz and Madison Steele.
“My setters,” said Lodi coach Kalani Vaughns of Mora and Orlando. “Both of them took control in running the offense. As far as net decisions, I thought we made really good ones.”
The Rams continued with their sloppy play throughout half of the set, including returning the ball. That led to the Flames expanding their lead to 20-15.
Then the Rams’ rally got underway.
Behind the serving of Alli-
son Eberhardt and Angelina Detoni — both only sophomores — and some solid kills down the middle of the court from teammate Emma Miller, the Rams went on a 10-0 run to post the victory. The Rams also took advantage of the Flames’ errors at the net and serving in the come-frombehind win.
“We lost our momentum on serve-receive,” Vaughns said. “We missed a few passes and that kind of caught them momentum. After that, the nervousness took over and that’s a hard thing to get out of.”
The Flames and Rams traded leads in the second set. But St. Mary’s busted through a 10-9 lead to make it 19-14, a 9-5 run in which it took advantage of the Flames’ sideouts.
Behind the serving of Detoni, who moved from sideline to sideline to serve to place the volleyball at different spots against the Flames’ defense, the Rams broke free from a 16-16 tie en route to the win.
Sauerland, along with Diaz and Woznick, had two blocked shots each in the match.