Clovers ‘shell-shocked’ by hard-hitting CC

MONROVIA—The Cloverdale Clovers’ volleyball team made it all the way to the Sectional 44 Championship at Monrovia High School on Saturday, but fell to a very good Covenant Christian Warrior team 3-0.

In the first game of the day, the Clovers had to come from behind to get the job done and beat Cascade 3-2. The Cadets went up two sets to none before the Clovers stormed back, winning the next three sets.

“We did that quite a bit throughout the season,” Clover coach Traci Scott said. “Even though that we lost the first two sets, I had confidence that we would come back.”

Cloverdale had the lead in the first set 8-5 before Cascade went on a 14-5 run and eventually winning the set 25-21. The second set was much the same with the Cadets going on a 15-6 run and winning 25-22.

Finally, the third set got interesting for the Clovers. They were up 8-7 before junior Hannah Rady went on an eight-serve run. She had two aces and junior Tori Combs had four kills. Cascade did take six of the next seven points, but four late Cadet errors resulted in a 25-17 Clover victory.

Service and attack errors doomed the Cadets in the fourth set, as they totaled 13 miscues. The Clovers took advantage, winning 25-16. Kenzie Stoltz had two aces in the set, which set her up for an excellent performance in the fifth set.

Stoltz started the fifth with four straight points on two kills and two aces to take an early 5-1 lead over Cascade. She had four total kills in the set. The Cadets had six more errors including the final two attack errors to give the Clovers a 15-7 victory.

“Our record is deceiving because we’re a good team, we hit hard and we serve very well,” Scott said. “I think that teams are not expecting that because our record is not quite where it should be for the talent level that we have.”

Covenant Christian came in at 32-1 on the season and dominated from the first serve, taking the first three points.

Cloverdale did manage to get three straight points in the set thanks to a block from Combs and also two attack errors committed by the Warriors, but they still found themselves down 16-12. Covenant Christian took nine of the next 12 points to win the set 25-15.

“We played them to 15 points,” Scott said. “The goal was obviously to win but as long as we competed and played some quality volleyball, I think we had a great season.”

The Warriors came out even stronger in the second set. Their hard hitting ability and ball placement limited the Clovers to nine points, and only twice they scored more than one point in a row. The Warriors also had nine aces in the set, winning 25-9.

Senior Rachel Newport started the serving for the Warriors in the third set. She did that 10 straight times to take a 10-0 lead forcing a Clover timeout. The Clovers responded with three straight points thanks to a kill from Combs and two attack errors.

From there, Covenant Christian took over again and only gave up four more points. After giving up the seventh point, they scored seven straight to win the game. Hope Notter finished the game with a tip kill to make it 25-7.

“We were a little shell-shocked,” Scott said. “We don’t have a lot of hard-hitting teams that we compete with. Once they’ve seen it, I think they’ll learn from it and continue to grow.”

The Clovers finish their season at 12-15, but they will retain the core of their nucleus. Annika Whitlock, Justyce Monnett, Anne Marie Williams and Kiley Shedron will all graduate but Combs, Rady and Stoltz among others will stay.

“We’re losing one starter,” Scott said. “We’ve got good jumping ability and we’ve got good hitters. We have our libero and setter returning. I realize next year we can continue to grow and be better than we were this year.”

Sectional Semifinal

Cascade 25 25 17 16 7

Cloverdale 21 22 25 25 15

Sectional Championship

Covenant Christian 25 25 25

Cloverdale 15 9 7