Faith volleyball loses tough opener

A roller-coaster-like match proved to be costly for the Faith Christian volleyball team.

Slow out of the gates, the Yuba City school fell 25-20, 25-23, 10-25, 25-21 to Forest Lake Christian in their Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoff opener at home on Tuesday.

"We knew it would be tough. They are a Division VI team, we are a Division VII team and they play in a tougher league than we do," said Faith Christian coach Rene Martin. "We just had that slump in the second game and that hurt us."

After the two teams went back and forth early, Forest Lake (16-9 overall) eventually jumped out to an 8-4 lead and then nearly doubled the lead with Tessa Gavia serving.

Gavia recorded four service points, including an ace, during a stretch in which teammate Jen Menary dished three of her five game assists.

A 15-5 lead, however, quickly dissipated when the Lions (23-6) marched back on an 8-3 run.

Faith's inability to set up quality hits in the first game prevented the Lions from overcoming a late five-point deficit.

Unfortunately for the Lions, a "disappointing" second game set the team back to two games — a margin that is rarely overtaken.

Faith cruised to a 4-0 lead and then dashed to a 9-1 run thanks to the combination of Laura Thorpe and Danielle Best assisting Cami Bicknell and Kellye Hallmark, which accounted for six of those points.

But a comfortable 22-13 lead was erased with the serving of Forest Lake's Hanson Caitlin, who dropped an ace and four other service points to lead the Falcons back to a 22-22 tie.

"We just kind of died there when they came back like that," Martin said of the second game. "We just couldn't recover."

A pair of errors took away the Lions serve as soon as they received it and the Falcons polished off the game with a Menary assist to Tasha Haddad.

Menary finished with 15 assists to lead both teams, while Thorpe and Best combined for nearly 30.

The Lions emptied out the offense in the third game, erupted to an 8-1 lead and never looked back.

They scored points off aces, middle spikes, cross-court hits and flop shots to crush the Falcons and bring the match to 2-1.

A hard-fought fourth game included eight ties and seven lead changes, but the only one that mattered was the final lead change, when the Falcons blew open a 7-1 run to take a 24-19 lead.

A solid bright spot for Faith throughout the match was Sarah Hall, who dove her way to 27 digs. "She did a great job for us tonight, and she's only a sophomore," Martin said.

In their final prep volleyball match, Hallmark recorded 11 kills and Bicknell added nine kills. Hallmark also added nine digs, while Bicknell added 14 digs.

Morgan Trimble led the Lions with 13 kills.

"We have a lot of potential for the future," said Martin, who noted she's returning all but three players to the team. "This team mentally clicked so quickly that the chemistry was probably the best I've ever coached. They worked really hard and I'm proud of every single one of them."