Tears

By Michael Ashcraft --

The Vikings sailed into the Santa Monica Bay and did what they always do: plunder.

The Vistamar School Vikings plundered Lighthouse Christian Academy's dream season in girls volleyball Thursday, taking the second round of playoffs from the girls who dreamed.

"I didn't think we'd get this far after losing our two seniors," said Coach Jessica Young. "We just don't have solid blocking. The passers can't dig the whole court. They had two strong hitters and hit pretty much anywhere they want. If we don't have a block, that's the way it goes. They're freshmen and they've never really blocked. They're learning."

It the stuff of dreams, a team led by a junior and a few sophomores. A team comprised of freshmen taking on bigger teams from bigger schools to advance one round in playoffs.

Dreams were growing, so tears were flowing.

The Saints won the first game 25-20 of the match of five. Then the Vikings, who seemed to size up the Saints, adapted and took the next three games 9-25, 23-25, 20-25 at Oakwood Recreation Center in Venice.

"We have a pretty good attack, we're scrappy," Jessica said. "I'm pretty proud of them. Next year, it's going to be even better. They did really good. I'm proud of them."

Setter Shayla Papik, the most experienced player on the team, nabbed 7 unreturned hits, 2 aces and 4 blocks. She's an all-around great player, candidate for MVP in Lighthouse's league, which it sailed out of undefeated this year.

Libero Riley Gonzalez got a stunning 24 digs. Eden Garcia got 8 digs and 3 aces.

Outside hitter Jillian Jenkins was limited in her unreturned hits, getting 15, a little more than half her usual haul. She had 12 digs. There's little doubt she'll be named to league first team.

"I'm sad for sure. I'm going to miss playing with Shayla, Jill and Lucy, all the team" Riley said through tears. "There's just something about playing with Lighthouse. It brings us all together."