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Despite a near-perfect start to the season, the Liberty boys volleyball team will not finish 2024 with a perfect record.
The Lions struggled with several mistakes in a 3-1 (26-28, 20-25, 25-19, 22-25) loss to Foothill on Friday night in Brentwood.
“We had too many consecutive mistakes,” Liberty head coach Haley Bustamante said. “This was probably one of our bigger challenges because this was probably one of the best teams we've ever played.”
The Lions entered the game having won their first three games of the season, dominating Irvington and Mission San Jose before surrendering the first set of the season and defeating Vanden 3-1.
In Friday night's match against the Falcons, Liberty traded points in the first set, but Foothill took advantage of Liberty's mistakes and miscommunication at the net to take a 13-11 lead midway through the set. A kill from Nicolas Bernal kept the Lions within three points, 18-15, and then a kill from Dionisio Nava kept them within three points, 19-16.
Foothill's Josh Salonga made a mistake on a kill attempt, putting Liberty within two points at 19-17, but a few minutes later Zachary Czisny's kill brought Liberty within one point at 21-20. .
The Lions tied the game at 22-22 on a kill from Bernal, then tied it again at 24-4 and 26-26 on a serve error from Foothill's Jeremy Sun and a kill from Liberty's Tyler DeGuzman. . However, an error by Nava and a kill by Salonga allowed Foothill to take the set 28-26, making the match 1-0.
Liberty took the lead in the second set with a 9-7 lead, but made more mistakes and the Falcons came back to lead 15-11 at the halfway point. Foothill would take the second set 25-20.
The Lions fought back in the third set, using Foothill's initial 3-0 run to rally with a 5-0 run of their own to take an early 5-3 lead. Liberty won the only set of the match, 25-19, getting key blocks from Bernal and Nava to stay alive, and Cizny got a kill late in the set to maintain the lead for the rest of the match. series.
It looked like the Lions were going to seize the momentum and force a fifth set, but the Lions were unable to get the final points they needed in the fourth and final set. The Lions led by a score of 19-18 for most of the fourth set, and the Falcons fought back to take a 21-19 lead after a Liberty timeout.
Foothill senior Yun Bae got the match-ending kill to take the set 25-22 and make the match 3-1.
“It was probably our own mistakes (that led to the loss),” Bustamante said. “Volleyball is a very momentum-based sport. If you make an error, you can't recover from it quickly. They come in and complicate themselves and that's kind of what happened there. .”
Bustamante added that while the loss hurt, neither she nor the team were too worried about the loss early in the season. Her 3-1 record after the first four games is a complete reversal from the 1-3 start the team endured last year, including a 3-0 loss in the season's second game against Foothill. Thing.
“We are still young,” Bustamante said. “We have a lot of young players on the court right now, but we're still finding our groove as far as playing together.”
“We are working to continually improve as the season progresses and we hope to reach our peak in the league and at the end of the season.”
Liberty (3-1) will look to bounce back against College Park (5-3) on Tuesday night in Brentwood.
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