Glendora, CA (Volleyball) – With all 7 starters on the floor receiving post-season honors, it can be hard sometimes to find the right amount of fire to get the job done. That was the case for the Lady Owl’s on Tuesday night, but the Lady Owl’s fought back and staved off a 
very tough effort by the visiting Mt. SAC Mounties in the 1st round of the COA SoCal Playoffs winning 30-25, 30-23, and 30-24.
“We came out flat and there wasn’t much intensity or excitement on our side sometimes,” said 4th year head coach Tammy Knott. “But, we came out and got the job done.” Helping get that job done was some consistent play from Lucero Vargas, and the Lady Owl’s domination at the net. The Lady Owl’s had a total of 8 blocks, while the Mounties had none.
“We were aggressive at the net,” Knott said. “Some of those blocks led to good points for us tonight.” While their play at the net was stellar, the Lady Owl’s seemed to struggle in handling serves. “We need to improve are serve receiving, and our defense,” Knott said. “We got caught in our transitioning, not being in the right spots, and they got a lot of kills that way.”
In the first game, the Lady Owl’s traded points back and forth with the Mounties. With the game tied at 19 all, the Owl’s rode a 4-0 run capped off by a Kelly Fink kill and Janelle Martinez assist at 23-19. From there the Owl’s lead would never be less than two on their way to a 30-25 victory.
With the Lady Owl’s trailing 3-4 in the second game, All-State Honoree Fink slammed home another kill to tie the game up at 4. After the Mounties committed two consecutive errors the Lady Owl’s would go up 6-4 and never relinquish the lead from there on in winning the second game 30-23.
The third game, saw the Mounties jump out to a quick 3-1 lead. The Lady Owl’s would battle back however, with 3 lead changes before the game was tied up a 10-10. Fink yet again brought home a crucial kill putting the Lady Owl’s up by 1. Citrus would jump out to a 7 point lead at 23-16, but would see the Mounties slowly chip away at that. The Lady Owl’s were able to stop the bleeding however at 28-24 after Lauren Bjorklund and Fink recorded a kill a piece to win the game 30-24.
Vargas finished the night second in kills (13), but first in kill percentage (.448) and digs (11). Fink led all players in kills with 17, while Bjorklund proved to be a block master with 3 of the Lady Owl’s blocks (2 solo, 2 assisted). Janelle Martinez also recorded 35 assists.
With the win the Lady Owl’s improve to 19-3 on the season. Second round action will be Saturday at 7:00 pm. The Lady Owl's will be facing Los Angeles Pierce College who defeated Long Beach City College 3-0 earlier this evening. The match will be hosted by the Brahma's. Citrus College and LA Pierce split their head to head this year, the Brahma's winning in 5 games at their gym, and the Lady Owl's winning in 4 when they played host.
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