The Madera Coyotes girls volleyball team forced a deciding third set, but fell two points short in the Madera Classic girls volleyball tournament at Madera South High School.
The Coyotes advanced to the Gold Division championship match after earning the No. 4 seed. They easily defeated Edison in the quarterfinals and beat their scrappy neighbors to the east Liberty in the semifinals.
The Coyotes lost the first set, 25-17, but forced a third set with a 25-16 victory. They fell behind 6-0 behind three aces in the third set and lost 15-13.
“We’re still learning how to make changes during a match to adapt to what the other team is doing and learn from what they are doing to make our game effective,” Madera head coach Meghan Haas said. “We’re always trying to press for volleyball IQ. Our middles (Hallie Page and Isabella Saucedo) worked really hard for them. There’s only two of them. They have to do a lot of work and we ask a lot of them. We played really well. Modesto is a great team. We were two points short. I told them they should be really proud of themselves.”
Page had seven kills in the championship match while Saucedo added four kills and four blocks in the win over Liberty. Katelyn Siegl led the Coyotes with 12 kills in the title match. Libero Lexi Carmona and setter Lauren Grewal were named to the All-Tournament team.
“We have a lot of work in serve receive to do,” Haas said. “It’s a tough skill. It’s hard to practice because it’s so slow. Going into CMAC in a couple of weeks, we’re looking pretty good.”
The Hawks are showing they are the top team in Div. IV by earning the No. 1 seed in the championship bracket. They opened the Gold Division quarters with a tough victory over Kings Academy-Sunnyvale, but lost in the semifinals to Madera.
Madera South captured the Silver Division championship with a 25-16, 25-21 win over Mendota. They advanced to the championship match with a 25-19, 25-21 win over Independence-Bakersfield.
“We’re still going through growing pains,” head coach Travis McEowen. “We have a lot of young talent and we’re still trying to mold and grow together. The highs are great because we’re doing things we’re doing in practice. The lows are the young mental state we are. We have to have the practice and the reps.”