La Cañada falls in CIF-SS finals

La Cañada girls’ volleyball team fell behind early to Elsinore in the CIF Southern Section Division II-A finals and was never able to rebound after losing the first two games, 19-25, 13-25, 25-22, 20-25.

The victory was Elsinore’s first ever girls’ volleyball championship and only third championship in any sport. Elsinore has been open since 1891.

“We were fired up,” said Tigers senior Michelle Waber. “We’ve got nine seniors on this team, we’ve been looking forward to this our whole high school careers. We came here to take care of business. This was amazing.”

Waber had 17 kills for Elsinore (30-2), as did teammate Kyleen Iverson. Laine Hicks had 11. All three are seniors.

Several of the Spartans (25-7) admitted they didn’t come out as sharp as they should have while Elsinore was on their game from the first serve.

“We weren’t prepared [for some of their players],” said sophomore Claire Hilsen. “I regret a little how we came out at the beginning, we weren’t there yet. But we got back in game 3.”

“It’s a bummer,” said Spartan senior Courtney McCutchan. “It was a quick match. They were a step ahead of us.”

McCutchan led the Spartans with 12 kills and 10 digs. Freshman Katie Pierce had seven kills. Senior Tara Rallis had 16 digs and junior Eirene Kim had 12. Senior Hayley Woodford had 32 digs.

“We made it tough for us,” said Spartan senior MaryJo Scott, who had 10 kills in the match. “There were errors, but we were still off and in the second game, we still weren’t playing our game.”

Down 2-0 in games, La Cañada found their groove in game 3 and jumped out to a 11-4 lead on three kills by Pierce.

Elsinore battled back though, making it 20-18 on kills by Waber and Lauren Quijano. But McCutchan fired a rocket of a spike that ricocheted off a Tiger and hit the ceiling.

Pierce scored the game point to make it 2-1 in games.

The momentum didn’t carry, though, as Elsinore jumped out immediately with four consecutive points, 4-0.

Though La Cañada was able to battle back from a 7-2 deficit to within one point, 14-15, Elsinore slammed down five straight points and La Cañada couldn’t recover.

“They came back, we needed to step up and we didn’t,” La Cañada Head Coach Brock Turner said. “In crucial situations, you have to step up and we didn’t.”

Turner, though, admired that his team finished the match the way they played all season, by never giving up until the final point was scored.

“It was neat, that was the team we recognized,” Turner said. La Cañada scored three consecutive points on match point. “The heart of this team is never giving up and we didn’t.”

La Cañada’s season is not over, however; CIF State championship begins on Nov. 24.