Sep 4, 2008

Lancers tower over Scots

St. Francis hitters in top form to start season

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

St. Francis High girls volleyball coach Kim Oden wasn't sure what she would see Wednesday night.

With only one team practice under the Lancers' belt, Oden hoped the little time together wouldn't show in the team's season opener.

It didn't.

The Lancers squad looked in mid-season form, as St. Francis downed visiting Carlmont-Belmont 25-13, 25-23, 25-19 Wednesday night in Mountain View.

Leading the way was senior captain Lindsey Poulos with a game high 15 kills in the middle.

Cycling in several different subs off the bench, everyone on the floor contributed for St. Francis in the '08 opening-game victory.

"I'm more than pleased from what I saw tonight," Oden said. "I'm encouraged with potential this team has. They're gamers, that's all I can say."

Poulos, junior outside hitter Alex Trobbe and junior middle blocker Alex Freschet made things difficult all night long for the under-sized Carlmont bunch.

"Our middles are very strong," Oden said. "Not sure what our lineup will look like yet for the year, but very happy with the way things went tonight."

The Scots lost a tight match against rival Notre Dame-Belmont in the "Battle of Belmont" last week in their season opener.

The tough preseason slate for the young Scots concludes on Sept. 9 against Sacred Heart Prep.

"We knew that our height would be an issue coming into this year," Carlmont coach Jennifer Cho said. "Struggling with our height and setting up our block hurt us tonight. The tough preseason is only going to make us stronger."

Junior outside hitter Shaina Olsen and Trobbe opened the match with blistering back-to-back kills.

Senior captain Courtney Brenner put Carlmont on the board with a big smash of her own, as the match went back and forth in the early going.

The Lancers started to pull away with strong play from its setters, who dialed up juicy sets to the firing squad of big hitters.

Two straight kills by Poulos in the middle, followed by a quick strike from Trobbe made the score 13-8 St. Francis in Game 1.

Pulling out to a 10-point lead, St. Francis got kill No. 6 from Poulos to force game point before a Scots unforced error ended it 25-13.

But Carlmont didn't go away easily in Game 2.

Fighting until the end, the feisty bunch charged back from a 10-4 hole to pull within one point at 15-14.

Oden used her first timeout of the match hoping to cool the Scots' rally, but Carlmont sophomore outside hitter Amanda Fowler hammered home one of her seven kills on the night to keep things close.

Junior Shelby Smith drilled a winner for Carlmont making the score 20-19 St. Francis, but the home team wouldn't relinquish the lead, getting a big double block from Trobbe and Freschet to pull ahead 22-19.

Trobbe finished with seven kills and four blocks on the night for St. Francis.

Sophomore Savannah Paffen ended the second game with a big smash to give St. Francis a narrow 25-23 win.

The scrappy energy of Carlmont junior setter Kim Duba aided the Scots' defense in Game 2, but without any size in the middle, Cho saw her team run out of gas in Game 3.

"We don't have enough size to get a strong block set up," Cho said. "Our defense used a lot of energy in Game 2. We didn't have much left in Game 3."

St. Francis jumped out to a 10-5 lead in Game 3 and never looked back, finishing off Carlmont 25-19 in three games.

The Lancers will be back in action Saturday morning in the Milpitas Spike Fest at Independence High in San Jose.

Their first match is at 8 a.m.

"I'm really excited we're in this tournament," Oden said. "Aptos is in our pool along with several other strong teams."