The third-seeded Lodi High girls volleyball team exited the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs in heartbreaking fashion on Thursday, dropping a five-set match to No. 6 Granite Bay. Lodi held a lead in the fifth set, but Granite Bay surged to take a 15-13 win and move on to the semifinals.
“The girls played hard. It was a great match,” said Lodi coach Krista Brereton. “It wasn't that we played bad, it could have been anybody's game.
” There is a chance Lodi's season could still go on, but it's slim — the SJS sends 23 teams to the NorCal Regional Playoffs. Among them are the semifinalists from the first five divisions, plus the finalists from D-VI, leaving one at-large bid which is taken from the top remaining team in the maxpreps.com rankings.
As of Thursday morning's rankings, Lodi is No. 12, with three teams ranking above them — Oak Ridge, Pitman and St. Francis — that also exited in the quarterfinals.
On Thursday, Lodi rebounded from a 25-19 loss in the first set to take the second, 25-16. The score was even until a four-point run that included a Granite Bay spike that Lodi libero Mariah Azua kept alive with her face. After that, Granite Bay wasn't able to close the gap.
The third set was also close, with Granite Bay taking a 12-11 lead and holding it until the Flames overtook the Grizzlies at 21-20. Lodi surged for a 25-21 victory on a run with Karis Mann serving. “We made some defensive adjustments after the first set to be able to get that second win.