Heritage mistakes blow 2-0 match lead

Patriots boys volleyball season ends in 3-2 loss to Logan

By Juan Cebreiros Correspondent

The Heritage Patriots boys volleyball team blew 2-0 series lead as they fell to the James Logan Colts 3-2 in the opening round of the North Coast Section playoffs Tuesday, May 2. Mistakes in each of the last three sets prevented the Patriots from securing a victory over the Colts.

“We made a lot of mistakes in the third set, and we lost the momentum and we never got it back,” head coach Janet Hannigan said of the team’s loss.

Heritage had multiple chances in the third set to win the series, needing just one point to do so but they were unable to. Leading 26-25 the Colts scored three unanswered points to come from behind and win the set 28-26. Logan won the next two sets 25-21 and 15-11.

Despite the late rally from James Logan to force a fourth set, The Patriots still had won Sets 1 and 2 in convincing fashion by going on a 14-1 run to win Set 1, 25-17 as well as scoring three straight times to close out Set 2, 25-20.

“It was just our mistakes. We tried to run plays and hit different things but it was just our mental game,” middle hitter Luke Simone said of the loss.

Both defenses played well throughout the series and forced the opposing offenses to adjust their game plans to find any consistency on offense. The Patriots found success when they began to attack towards the middle of the court but the Colts adjusted and started to have their blockers block in the middle.

“We were trying to attack to their deep corners and we weren’t having the success that I would’ve hoped. Both of our outside hitters were a little bit off their game today,” said Hannigan about the Patriots’ offensive adjustments throughout the match.

As the series continued, Hannigan tried different lineups to try to light a spark for her team. However, despite the adjustments, the Colts won Set 4 behind an 8-3 run to force the winner-take-all Set 5.

“We tried changing our offense a little bit, we tried different people, we tried every way we could to get them to make something click,” said Hannigan.

In the win-or-go-home Set 5, James Logan jumped out to a 7-2 lead, which was too much for the Patriots to overcome as they trailed the Colts the entire set and lost 15-11, ending their season in the opening round of the NCS playoffs.

Despite the tough loss, Simone is confident going into next season.

“We’re gonna win; this isn’t happening again. We’re gonna go far. I wanna go deep in NCS,” Simone said.

The Heritage Patriots boys volleyball season ends with an 18-11 overall record, 8-2 in the Bay Valley Athletic League and finishing in second place in the league trailing only the Deer Valley Wolverines.

Heritage sweeps Liberty (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) on Thursday, April 27

The Heritage Patriots swept the season series against their cross-town rival Liberty Lions with a 3-0 victory (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) on Thursday, April 27. Despite the Lions not winning a single set, the series was intense with neither side gaining a clear edge over the other.

Alex Auldridge got another start in place of the injured Markus Krepp, who will be out for the rest of the season. Auldridge once again led the Patriots in kill shots with 11 in his team’s victory over the Lions.

“When I play club, I’m usually an outside hitter. So I was kinda used to the position already,” said Auldridge on adjusting from the bench to a starting role.

The Patriots’ focus down the stretch of the season has been to limit their mistakes to not let the momentum swing too far against them.

“We’ve been working a lot on unforced errors. If we have one, we try to come back quicker from it,” said Patriots head coach Janet Hannigan.

Early in the game, Hannigan made it known that she would not be afraid to substitute a player for another if they are not playing well enough. Shortly after, players would make a mistake and a substitution would be made.

This style of lineup management seemed to pay off when late in the first set with the score tied at 21, Hannigan called a timeout to not only calm her team down after the Lions’ run to tie the set, but to also change her lineup by substituting Dede Basa back in for Luke Simone. The lineup change worked as the Patriots won the opening set, 25-22.

“It almost proved a point to starters – you need to do your jobs. If you’re not, there’s a guy waiting,” said Hannigan.

Throughout the match the two teams went back and forth, but the third set was one that slipped away from the Lions. Liberty led the entire set and clung to a one-point lead until the Patriots ripped off four unanswered scores to take a 19-16 lead. The Lions were unable to recover as the Patriots took the third and final set, 25-21 to win the series 3-0.

“I don’t think we approached the match tonight the way we needed to,” said Lions head coach Haylie Bustamante on the team’s loss to the Patriots.

Despite the results, both teams qualified for North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs. Liberty finished league play 6-4 to finish third in the Bay Valley Athletic league. They traveled to Fremont to face the American High School Eagles on Tuesday, May 2.

Bustamante views playoffs as, “a new start” and “a chance to turn things around.”

Heritage finished league play 8-2 to place second in BVAL play.