INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the La Puente Bishop Amat-Riverside Poly CIF-Southern Section Division 2-AA first-round volleyball match for The Press-Enterprise on Nov. 9, 2010, and came away thinking Poly is going to need more size if they plan on advancing much further.

Luckily, the Bears have that ability. Senior 6-foot-3 middle blocker Ashley Tamas, who didn’t play against Bishop Amat, is probable for Thursday’s match.

Without Tamas, Poly was actually undersized against Bishop Amat, an at-large qualifier and fourth-place team from the Del Rey League. The Bears tallest were 5-11 Kelly Lewis, 5-10 Taylor Wilson and 5-10 Samantha Straley against Bishop Amat’s trio of 6-footers, Megan Bowcock, Rachel Seals and Jullian Nobles.

As a result, the Bears were outhit throughout the match and managed to stay in the game on the back of a strong service and volley game. They were the more agile and athletic team. Annie Wells and Madison Dreyer made each of their four aces at crucial moments. Libero Alyssa Drachslin was digging from all directions.

Strong service and volley games are nice but to challenge for a CIF title a team needs long arms. Lots of them. The Bears are going to need Ashley Tamas. 

La Puente Bishop Amat coach Richard Nguyen:
“We knew that they were gonna serve tough. Two things we tried to do well was to serve and receive well; we knew we knew we needed to win the serve-receive game. Can’t just come in here thinking you’re gonna waltz all over the place. You gotta battle. No team’s gonna just lay down. You gotta earn it. You gotta work for it. We gotta work on the first point to the last point. There are times when we’re gonna be on cruise control and we shouldn’t. And when we have a lead we gotta build on it. Instead, we allowed them to come back, and that a sign of a little bit of immaturity. Maybe a little bit of inexperience. But it’s a good experience. They know that they were there. They know that they can compete with any team in this division. When we pass the ball well we were able to sideout. But give them credit, they were able to serve well.”

Riverside Poly head coach Kyle Duncan:
“It’s just one things when you’re in the playoffs you have to go strength against strength. You gotta go aggressive. Our strength is serving and passing. We go out there and serve tough and when we get on those runs we’re a solid defensive team. That leads us to good offense. Tough serving, good passing, as soon as we got in that type of rhythm then we got the wheels rolling. They served equally as tough and their hitters took some big swings out there and really challenged us. We had to be disciplined. They had their biggest hitter on one of our smaller blockers and we have to play team defense. That’s our team. We’re one of the smallest teams in the playoffs but the reason we’re as good as we are is because we play together. If you play together, then you’re tough. (Madison Dreyer) is the best team in this league, hands down. She’s just a warrior. She struggled the last two weeks on serving and she served the ball great tonight.”

Riverside Poly senior outside hitter Madison Dreyer:
“We all, before the game, had a talk. We just had to play our game so that we could win. We knew we could do it. I’m really excited and pumped up for the playoffs. I think it’s half-and-half. I think that when I’m positive it helps but also, when I’m negative, I think it affects the team, too. So I have to do my best to keep everything positive and everyone competing and work with that. It feels good to have layed in some aces to get my team’s confidence back in my serving.”