It’s PV, again Vikings capture Division II crown over rival Chico RED BLUFF — The Northern Section Division II championship belongs to the Pleasant Valley High volleyball team — after Chico made the Vikings work for it. Sophomores Lily Justine smashed 20 kills, Heather Pembroke totaled 15 more, Brooke Fogel made 20 digs, and lone senior Sydney Stanley set up all of PV’s hitters with 41 assists as part of a 25-22, 20-25, 25-18, 25-12 victory Saturday night. Pleasant Valley had won eight straight sets — including two sweeps in Eastern Athletic League play — between the section’s lone Division II teams entering the final at Red Bluff High. But after quickly falling behind 18-8 in the opening set, the Panthers rallied and closed the chasm. Sydney Gaskey kickstarted the rally with two straight points, and Allysa Barrett had a kill for Chico’s first burst of momentum. A Gaskey tip made it 19-16. Top-seeded PV (23-11) answered with a four-point stabilizing run that included a Pembroke kill, and Meagan Mason’s ace before Justine handled a solo block at 23-16. Chico wasn’t done, though. Emma Contreras knocked one of her nine kills, and Gaskey served one of her three aces. But PV had the final say thanks to the nearly unblockable Justine. She rocketed yet another kill at 24-18. And just as the Panthers inched closer to within 24-22, Mason passed off to Stanley, and she set up Justine for her sixth kill of the set. “Lily crushed it down the line. That was a huge moment. That was the winnable moment. It already fed into their confidence. A huge play by Meagan,” Vikings coach J.J. Mitchell said. “That gave us a cushion to have a bad set.” It was evident, though, that the Panthers (19-14) weren’t about to let this one go easily. Setter Amanda Manning finished with 21 assists, and Barrett had 12 digs, five kills and three aces. Stacey Jones had 10 digs, and Contreras added nine. “We got our energy up and that really helped,” Barrett said. “We really wanted this win so we just tried to pull everything we could together to get us as close we could to them.” The Panthers maintained the momentum they built in the first set. Kills from Barrett and then Becca Korte evened the second set at 9. Another Gaskey ace broke a 12-12 stalemate, the set’s sixth tie. Manning set the ball over the net at 21-17, and an errant PV serve — one of several Viking miscues in the set — squared the match. “This is the best match we played all year,” Chico coach Chuck Johnson said. “We had a good run at them.” The third set was another tight set. Courtney Holloway had a kill to give PV a 17-15 lead, and Pembroke took two big swings from the left side for kills at 19-15. Chico answered as Gaskey and Contreras teamed for a block. Moments later, the Panthers finally blocked enough of a Justine attack, but they couldn’t get the playable ball back over the net at 21-18. The fourth set resembled the opening minutes of the match with the Vikings racing to a big advantage, but this time they finished things quickly. Mason’s ace made it 6-3, and then Holloway had a kill. Justine made it 9-4, and 6-foot junior Natalie Lowden, filling in for middle blocker Hanne Henriksen because of illness, fired a kill of her own at 12-5. Chico got no closer than that as Lowden, Pembroke, Holloway, Justine, seemingly every Viking hitter really, took turns firing kills. Even before Justine set up match point and Holloway finished it, the outcome was long decided. Because the Division II field is only the two crosstown rivals, Chico will not advance to the Northern California playoffs, and Pleasant Valley, despite being a section champion, isn’t even guaranteed a home match. Last year, the victorious Panthers were forced to hit the road. Home or away, Justine didn’t care. Not with a title already won. “Doesn’t matter who. Doesn’t matter where. We’re going to play, and we’re going to put up a fight,” she said.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 04:23:08 +0000