Focused Titans cruise into Div.-II title match
| Tuesday, Nov 17 2009 10:05 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Nov 17 2009 10:05 PM
Images
Michael Fagans / The Californian Frontier's Samantha Whittington is backed up by teammate and libero Colby Joseph as they cover an attack from Lemoore during the Titans' playoff game Tuesday night in Bakersfield.
Michael Fagans / The Californian Frontier's Morgan Drake and Taylor Jackson go up to block Lemoore's Bridget Billingsley during their playoff game at home in Bakersfield on Tuesday night.
Michael Fagans / The Californian Frontier's Kelsey Fien, left, Taylor Jackson, Samantha Whittington, Colby Joseph and Kristyn Kirschenman celebrate a roof block during their playoff game against Lemoore at home on Tuesday night in Bakersfield.
The Frontier volleyball team performed with such efficiency and force Tuesday night, it's hard to imagine what it can do for an encore.
The top-seeded Titans used a balanced scoring attack and stifling defense to thoroughly frustrate No. 4 Lemoore, 25-16, 25-10, 25-14, to advance to the Section Division II championship.
Now things get really interesting.
Frontier's opponent will be No. 2 Garces, which eliminated the Titans (29-9) in the section quarterfinals last year. The Rams, who split two matches with Frontier this season, swept No. 3 Visalia-El Diamante in Tuesday's other semifinal.
"We've been talking about it for a year," Frontier coach Steven Bentley said. "Our kids have been talking about it for a year and I really think the two best teams are going to play in the finals, and we're so excited to play Garces again."
The rubber match will be for all the marbles at 7 p.m. Thursday at Frontier.
"We've been waiting for a year for a rematch," Whittington said. "We're really excited to go to the Valley championship."
The Titans will be hard-pressed to play any better than they did Tuesday.
Frontier never trailed in the first two games, opening up huge margins with a balanced scoring attack orchestrated by senior setter Samantha Whittington.
Whittington finished with 33 assists, dividing them almost equally among Morgan Dake, Taylor Jackson, Cailee Ruter, Kelsey Fien and freshman Krista Rymer.
"Our team came in here really prepared," Whittington said. "We knew what we had to do. We had a job to do and we came and got it done."
Rymer did much of the damage in the first game, scoring three of her match-high 10 kills during a 7-1 run that gave the Titans a 20-10 lead. After trading points, Fien finished the game off with a kill.
In Game 2, Dake and Luter had two kills apiece during an 8-0 spurt for a 16-6 lead. Rymer capped 7-straight Frontier points with an ace to build the lead to 23-8.
"We had scouted that team so we had a pretty good idea what they were going to run," Bentley said. "We kind of knew they were a middle dominant team so we set up our defense to contain them. We weren't going to stop them, but defensively we had a pretty good gameplan for them."
Lemoore (28-7), which shared the West Yosemite League title with El Diamante this season, took its first lead of the match when Kathleen Anderson scored back-to-back kills for an early 4-3 lead.
But the Titans regained control, scoring nine of the next 10 points. Jackson finished the rally with a kill. She had three kills and two blocks during the run.
"We're tough to defend because we can run 4-5 positions," Bentley said. "When our hitters our on and our set location is there, it's tough to beat us."
