Lady Jags win once, but lose heartbreaker in volleyball

It was an up-and-down week for the Valley Center varsity girls volleyball team, as the Lady Jaguars rolled to an easy win to start the week, but suffered the heartbreak of an overtime loss in a near comeback that came down to the final point.
The Lady Jags cruised to a 3–0 win over Orange Glen last Tuesday, with game scores of 25–19, 25–9, 25–4.
Laura Glennie led Valley Center with 12 kills, while Morgan Marcon added 25 assists in the big win.
But on Thursday, the Lady Jaguars lost the first two games to San Dieguito Academy, came back to even the score, then ultimately lost by two points in the tiebreaker to fall, 3–2, with game scores of 20–25, 21–25, 25–21, 25–23, 13–15.
Despite the relatively close scores in the first two games, the Lady Jags struggled to find rhythm and couldn’t keep pace with the Lady Mustangs. San Dieguito Academy jumped ahead right away in the first game, and every time the Lady Jaguars came close to pulling even, the Lady Mustangs went on a run to stay ahead.
But the Lady Jags woke up in the third game and came back from an early 5–2 deficit to tie the game at seven. From there, the two teams traded the lead back and forth until the waning moments of the game, when Valley Center got a late spike and forced San Dieguito to miss a return to take the game win.
Neither team could take more than a two-point lead in the fourth game until San Dieguito pulled away in the middle part of the game to take a 13–9 lead. But the Lady Jaguars fought back to even the score at 17, then the teams traded the lead back and forth as the game wore on. In the end, the Lady Jags won the game after a long return by San Dieguito, followed two plays later by a nice drop shot by Sidney Reilly to seal the win.
Momentum was firmly on Valley Center’s side heading into the tiebreaker, and Glennie spiked home a kill for the first point of the game, which was also the first time in the match that Valley Center scored the opening point of a game. The Lady Jaguars held the biggest lead of the game at 10–8, but the Lady Mustangs battled back to even the score at ten. Neither team could take more than a one-point lead until the final two points, as the Lady Mustangs got a kill to lead 14–13, and the Lady Jags couldn’t return a spike on the final play of the game to take the loss.
Valley Center is now 13–6 overall and 1–1 in league, with the next match coming on Thursday at Canyon Crest at 4:45 p.m.