St. Mary's girls volleyball blows past Lodi in league play opener
Lodi girls volleyball didn’t stand a chance against the Sac Joaquin Section No.1 ranked team St. Mary’s. The Rams hosted the Flames to kick off Tri-City Athletic League play — from the first set, they dominated their familiar foe.
Lodi ended Thursday’s matchup on the short end of a 3-0 sweep at the hands of the Rams who looked near unstoppable.
“They were pretty focused today,” said Garren Allala, St. Mary’s head coach. “We talked about being focused but a focus fun and they were pretty disciplined and just trying to improve on our side of the net.”
Here are the key takeaways from St. Mary’s victory over Lodi to start this season’s league play.
Hard hits from a freshman
Anytime McKenna McIntosh made a play on the court chants of “she’s a freshman" rang out from both sides of the court. Standing at 6-foot-1, McIntosh commanded attention on the floor and with every lethal smack of the ball she proved why all eyes were on her.
She led St. Mary’s fiery offense with 15 kills and three aces.
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“I think I definitely had some good digs in there and some good kills,” McIntosh said. “It takes a lot of practice to hit hard like that.”
The outside hitters' kills wouldn’t just make it past Lodi defenders, but it would smack them right in the face if they weren’t moving quickly enough. This kind of offensive contribution isn’t new for her as she leads her team in kills per set averaging five.
“She's learning every game and she's maturing every game,” Allala said. “She’s good at learning how to stay focused and play good for the beginning, middle and end. You got to see her in an even bigger more competitive match, she steps up even more.”
Along with McIntosh’s hard-hitting kills, the Rams had seven other players finish with at least one or more kills. Senior outside hitter Kaydence Bispo added the Rams' second-most kills with 14 kills.
Back to the drawing board
With St. Mary’s offense clicking, Lodi struggled to stay in the first two sets. The Flames dropped the first set 25-11 and the second set’s margin difference was even worse, losing 25-9. Head coach Krista Brereton and the visiting section filled with red didn’t lose hope in the final set though.
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“They were working hard trying to rally against a great team — St. Mary’s is a great team and we know we can play with them,” Brereton said. “We just were getting down on ourselves in the beginning but we made some good plays and momentum got in our favor.”
In the third set, Lodi clawed back from a double-digit deficit to bring the score to 24-21, the closest the Flames had been all night to beating the Rams. Leading the comeback was sophomore middle-hitter Jolie Leggitt. Leggitt finished the match with a team-high six kills.
The Flames' efforts would come too late in the set as St. Mary’s would secure a 25-21 win; it was a bright spot in the sweep.
“I think that the girls realize where our strengths are and our weaknesses are,” Brereton said. “Then we can focus on some things moving forward because this is our first league match. We have a lot of league left and we're gonna keep pushing and fighting all the way through.”
Lodi returns to action on Sept. 19 in another away matchup this time against Lincoln. The Rams will also play on Sept. 19 on the road against West.
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: St. Mary's girls volleyball blows past Lodi in league play opener
