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October 7, 2024
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
The bottom two girls volleyball teams in the Gateway League, Gahr High and La Mirada High, knew there was little margin for error if they wanted to move on to the CIF-Southern Section playoffs in two weeks. They hooked up last Thursday at Gahr with the hosts trying to avenge an earlier five-set loss to the Matadores.
The match featured an offensive display from two of the top seniors in the circuit, Gahr outside hitter Kyla Jones and La Mirada middle blocker Natalie Ojeisekhoba, both of whom combined for over 40 kills. And on this day, it was La Mirada which prevailed 25-16, 24-26, 25-21, 25-16 to improve to 10-11 overall, 2-4 in league action, a game behind third place Norwalk High.
“It’s been kind of a tough season,” said La Mirada head coach Kimberly Mahan. “We have a lot of talent, but we start off strong and we just can’t finish. But today was exciting. I feel like we played as a team. We were doing better on defense and our serve receive was a lot better, too.”
“Obviously, we went on a long playoff run last season and we were hoping to try to recreate some of that success,” said Gahr assistant coach Alex-Quan Madrid. “We feel we’ve built up a lot, but the younger [players] are further behind than we wanted them to be. We were relying on them a lot. I think our pathway to the playoffs kept dwindling, and though there’s still a possible pathway, this one certainly shut the door on the most possible [path].”
La Mirada led the entire way in the opening set as Gahr trailed by a point six times in the opening rotation. But after a serve into the net, senior libero Angelyna Conde had an ace, followed by a kill and a block from Ojeisekhoba as La Mirada opened a 17-10 lead. She had half a dozen kills in the set and was on her way to another superb match. Meanwhile, Gahr wasn’t backing down and got kills from five players, including four each from Jones and junior outside hitter Genesis Islas.
One of the biggest changes Mahan made for the match was having Ojeisekhoba be the last server in each rotation. Throughout most of the season, she had been serving somewhere around the middle of the rotation.
“We changed our rotation from the rotation we started because I feel like we were starting off getting a lot of points, then we backtrack,” said Mahan. “So I figured, we start [Ojeisekhoba] in the back row and now, we have her playing all the way around. We were able to utilize her a lot more with hitting, and her defense has improved tremendously.”
In the second set, there were four ties and two lead changes in the early moments and the Matadores were looking good at 13-8. But a serving error ended the first rotation, and Gahr sophomore setter Lauren Blanco responded with a pair of aces sandwiched around a kill from freshman outside hitter Violet Hackworth. Then Gahr took a 16-15 lead when sophomore libero Jayden Sydenham had consecutive aces, but towards the end of the second rotation, the Matadores regained the lead when senior setter Kiersten Mahan served her third ace of the set. A serve into the net put the Matadores a point away from going up 2-0, but Jones had two kills and senior defensive specialist Layla Garcia had an ace to even the match.
“I think we got stuck in a couple of rotations with serve receive, and that’s what killed us,” said Kimberly Mahan. “That’s happened all season. We would get up four or five points, and then we would have a bad serve receive and we go down.
“I’ve just been emphasizing that they have nothing to lose and to go out there and play hard with heart and passion,” she later added.
Just like the first set, Gahr never led in the third set, but was able to forge four ties, the last coming at 18-18 on a kill from Jones. Up to this point, La Mirada’s largest lead was only four points. But Ojeisekhoba pretty much gave the Matadores the win with a kill, then served five straight points with three aces, a kill from Kiersten Mahan and a block from senior middle blocker Maleah Diaz.
Gahr’s inability to string together a lot of points at a time has been a problem throughout most of the season. The team had no more than two straight points in the first set, no more than four straight points in the second and third sets and no more than three straight points in the fourth set.
“It’s hard because at moments, it feels like, yes, this team absolutely can do it,” said Quan-Madrid. “But when we give up huge chunks of points…a little bit of attention to detail on key plays is the difference in a game. Every team has been competitive that we’ve played. We feel like we’ve been competitive with all of them even though the record doesn’t reflect that, and that’s what makes it so frustrating.”
In the fourth set, Gahr had leads of 5-1 and 6-4, then sophomore setter Khari Julio had an ace to tie the set at 6-6, then another ace gave La Mirada the lead for good at 7-6. Jones tried to rally her team in the second rotation with four kills. But it was too little, too late as Gahr dropped to 15-17, 0-5 and will need to win its last three matches to have a slight chance as an at-large representative.
“There comes a point in the game where you start to feel the momentum start to shift,” said Quan-Madrid. “As a coach, you’re trying to tell the players, ‘hey, play the whistle because it’s still doable if you come back and get three or four serves in a row’. But at some point, they have to want it; they have to be willing to play every single point one at a time to the best of their ability. I don’t know if we did that tonight, at least when it came down to those crucial points.”
“I feel like they’re very similar to us,” said Kimberly Mahan. “They have a lot of talent, too, and they have a very strong hitter like we have a very strong hitter. But it’s just playing as a team and having everything work out in your favor. But they’re a strong team.”
Jones led everyone with 26 kills while Hackworth added 11 more. Junior middle blocker Jessalyn Ecevedo led the Gladiators with five aces while Garcia had four. But the story of the season has been on the outgoing Jones, and the emergence of Hackworth, two other freshmen and the trio of sophomores.
“She’s been fantastic,” said Quan-Madrid of Jones. “Just all the things that she brings to the team; the energy and the consistency that she brings. I think she did a lot to really highlight our program to show that we’re serious out here.
“We’re really excited about Violet,” he later said. “I feel like she has certain level of seriousness, drive, motor, character and discipline. All these things that are intangible that are very difficult to coach, she’s coming into [our program] as a freshman. She doesn’t play like a freshman at all; she looks like a high school junior playing, and she’s committed to training and getting stronger and everything.”
After hosting league-leading Downey High on Oct. 8 and going to second place Warren High on Oct. 10, Gahr will end the regular season at home against Norwalk on Tuesday. Even if the Gladiators win all three matches, they need help from La Mirada, Norwalk and Warren just to get into the playoffs.
“Obviously we have a big coaching staff, and I feel like we’ve put a lot into leveling up everyone to where they were,” said Quan-Madrid. “But I think there’s some aspects of it that just takes time, and I think the core of our team…the culture of our team just hasn’t had enough time. With this development, to see where we were at the beginning of the season to where we are playing now is night and day. So, we’re really proud of the leveling up that all our players have done.”
As she has done most of her career, Ojeisekhoba led the Matadores with 17 kills and six aces. She will leave La Mirada as one of the best athletes the school has had, not just the program. She currently has 605 kills, which could be a school record, according to Kimberly Mahan, 154 blocks, 140 digs, 74 aces and a .384 hitting percentage. She is one of nine seniors off a team of 13 players and according to the coach, has verbally committed to the University of Hawai’i-Hilo. But Kimberly Mahan says she has meant more than just to the team the past three seasons.
“Oh my gosh, not just the program, but the school,” said Mahan. “I was talking to [former La Mirada head coach Linda Reich] and I think she has the most kills as far back as I could go in school history. She’s a phenomenal middle. We’ve never had a player like her; we’ve never had a middle like her, or some of the hits as well. As she’s grown, too, she’s been able to read the court.”
La Mirada goes to Downey on Oct. 10 and will host Warren on Tuesday, needing to win both matches and have Norwalk lose its final two matches.
“I think we can, I think we can,” said Kimberly Mahan. “If we play our best, we can. But my girls have to want it. They cannot be afraid to play, and they just have to put everything out there.”
