Spencer Hammond
Staff Writer
The Costa girls volleyball team went head to head with the Redondo Sea Hawks in their final league match on Tuesday. They won the first two sets, but lost three straight in the end, losing the match, 3-2.
In the first set, Costa was on fire with senior outside hitter Skylar Caputo leading the team with four kills. Their early confidence helped propel them to a first set victory.
“We came firing on all cylinders the first set and the confidence was an all time high,” Caputo said. “We knew Redondo would fight back, so we made sure we would take set number two.”
The girls found their rhythm in the first set, leading the game early. With the aid of middle blocker Katie Rethmeyer, Costa blocked a series of key hits and hung on. The girls took the first set with the score of 25-18.
“We knew Redondo was going to fight back, but I think we got too comfortable after we won the first two,” senior middle blocker Katie Rethmeyer said. “We had no sense of urgency because we had such a big lead.”
The second set was a key point in the match, which helped put Costa up 2-0. Junior libero Emma Smith came up with a couple of key digs to keep Costa alive and pull out a win with a score of 25-23.
“We were confident,” Smith said. “We were the underdogs and we knew we could win. We were so close, but also knew it wouldn’t be easy.”
Redondo stormed back and dominated Costa in the third set. Costa tried to fight back every way they could, but Redondo came out on top, winning the third set, 25-11.
“We felt like we could finally beat them and we were really motivated, but we just weren’t motivated to pull it together and finish,” senior outside hitter Katrina Kernochan said.
Redondo came out hot in fourth set to bring the match back to 2-2. Costa tried to keep the game close, but could not stop Redondo’s outside hitters. Redondo took it to a fifth set, and the Mustangs lost, 15-11.
“This definitely was not the outcome we wanted, but what we can do right now is pick our heads up, move on to the next match and play our hearts out to play Redondo again,” Caputo said. “We have a lot of confidence in this team and so much potential. We need to let this match go and focus on hanging a CIF banner in the gym once again.”
Costa’s confidence and effort was not enough to fend off the Sea Hawks in an upsetting loss, resulting in the Mustangs finishing in second place in Bay League. They finish league with a record of 9-2, with both losses to Redondo.
“We are ready to work hard next week. We played better than we did in our last match against Redondo,” junior opposite hitter Sam Snyder said. We are going to use this past weekend and the match tonight as an opportunity to learn and further develop our team.”
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