MISSION HILLS — It’s not every day that players have a chance to compete in the CIF State playoffs. Alemany’s players made the most of the opportunity on Tuesday night.
The Warriors put on a show to begin their state playoffs appearance with a three-game sweep of visiting Eastlake of Chula Vista, 25-15, 25-21, 25-20.
The Warriors, who are the No. 1 seed in the CIF SoCal Division I bracket, will be home Thursday for the quarterfinals.
“We really just tried to stay locked in on defense,” said Warriors head coach Morgan Wijay. “Our biggest thing has been focusing on getting our middle offense to the next level and getting locked in on our first contact on defense. You know defense is key. Defense wins championships. We’re turning our defense into offense and it keeps ourselves in the game no matter how tough their offense is.”
Alemany holds onto the lead and finishes the sweep with a 25-20 win against Eastlake in the first round of the Division 1 State CIF Girls Volleyball playoffs. The season continues for atleast one more game.
Warriors win 3-0 pic.twitter.com/kZzdOCHJ8V
— Ryan Menzie (@MenzieReporter) November 8, 2023
It seemed the script was already written as the Warriors (25-10) stormed right out of the gates. The resounding first-set victory was led by outside hitter Gabi Polishuk’s six kills. The Warriors ended the set on an 11-3 run.
Polishuk finished the game with a team-best 17 kills on a 42% kill rate.
Polishuk recognized her teammates’ strong efforts all around.
“The team did great,” said Polishuk. “It’s not a win without the team. We had great passing sets. We really took it to them as a team tonight. We just got to continue working on being there physically and mentally and we’ll be ready for whoever wins the next game and meet us at home.”
Other than Eastlake (27-13) jumping out to an early 6-2 lead, the second set remained the same. The relentless attack of Polishuk, middle hitter Victoria Filippova, and outside hitter Havyn Rolle kept the Titans at bay and handed the Warriors a second-set victory.
Rolle finished the game with 13 kills on a team-best 71% kill rate while Filippova finished with nine kills on a 62% kill rate.
The Warriors took a 16-9 lead late in the third set, then cruised to the third-set victory.
Also playing a big role for Alemany was setter Kyla Firestone, who led all players with 41 assists.
“We were fighting for every point,” said Firestone. “Everybody focused on bringing it back and finding a spot on the other side that was open. The goal was to move the ball around, not second-guess ourselves, and change up the scouting report for the other team. We just got to really lock in and focus on every ball for a chance to win our next match.”