La Mirada comes from behind to defeat Norwalk, 3-1
Norwalk’s Marisol Roseboro hits a shot against La Mirada in their Mid Cities League girls volleyball match at Norwalk High School on Tuesday. La Mirada defeated Norwalk 3-1. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
NORWALK – It’s the beginning of a new era as the renamed Suburban Valley Conference (SVC) with its two leagues, began action in the area for girls volleyball Tuesday (September 13).
Two of those teams – La Mirada and Norwalk – both were formally in the Suburban League together, but now compete in the Mid Cities League within the SVC.
La Mirada, which came into the match with an even 6-6 overall record came from behind to defeat the Lancers, 3-1, at Norwalk.
The Matadores (7-6, 1-0) won 21-25, 25-13, 25-23, 25-22.
“I’m excited,” said La Mirada Girls Volleyball coach Kim Mahan, of the new conference. “It is all new. I’m glad we’re still playing Norwalk (2-8, 0-1). The other teams I have no idea of what to expect. I’ve never played them.
“We’re 1-0 and we will just grow from this. Every game we will go back and look at the stats and hopefully we’ll do better from there.”
The other four teams in the Mid Cities League are Bellflower, Firebaugh, Lynwood and Dominguez.
The other league within the SVC is called the Gateway League with five teams competing – Paramount, Gahr, Mayfield, Warren and Downey.
Leading the Matadores against Norwalk was junior outside hitter Alyssa Meraz with nine kills, senior OH Bailey Mahan with eight kills and senior middle blocker Milan Nimeh and sophomore middle Natalie Ojeisekhoba with six kills each.
Senior setter Mikayla Gonzalez led with 17 assists and sophomore setter Kiersten Mahan added 11 assists for La Mirada.
Bailey Mahan and Nimeh each had 12 digs.
The Lancers were led by junior OH Kendall Nakano (16 Digs) with a match-high 11 kills, followed by junior OH Marisol Roseboro with eight kills and sophomore middle Brenda Quezada had five.
Nakano also commented on the new conference alignment. “Definitely, some different opponents with a new perspective,” she said. “We still have to play our hardest and give it our all.”
A match-high 26 digs came from Norwalk senior libero Kimberly Lopez and junior setter Alyssa Dorado (17 Assists) had 13 digs. Sophomore setter Zaidee Zepeda added 14 assists.
In the opening set, it looked like Norwalk was going to walk away with the match with a commanding, 8-0 lead to start the first set.
Dorado served all eight points, including two services aces and a few errors by the Matadores. Nimeh broke the scoring streak with a kill, to trail, 8-1.
Bailey Mahan and Ojeisekhoba combined for three kills to close the gap to 9-4.
Later in the set, while La Mirada senior libero Andrea Rosiles was serving, the Matadores came within a point to trail, 15-14. Rosiles, who transferred in from Sunny Hills, just became eligible after sitting out the mandatory games.
However, the Lancers held on for the first-set win as sophomore middle Samantha Munoz connected with a kill to win the first set, 25-21.
“Last year we went five sets with Norwalk and we knew it was going to be a good match and we just didn’t know what to expect,” said Kim Mahan, of the first set loss. “I think the girls were a little nervous and it was the first league game and we weren’t playing our level of play.”
The second set started the same as the first, as the Lancers jumped out to a 4-1 lead. However, with three consecutive Norwalk errors, La Mirada evened the set, 4-4.
That was all the Matadores needed, as they took their first lead of the four-set match, and reeled off 11 consecutive points to lead, 12-4. Bailey Mahan had two kills in that stretch with Nimeh serving all 11 points.
La Mirada continued to build up the lead as Mahan served for five consecutive winners to take a commanding, 20-8 lead.
Later in the set, with the Matadores leading 23-13, Meraz served an ace for the set point, 24-13.
During the final rally, La Mirada libero Margaret Norton made a one-handed save to keep the rally going and Norwalk eventually hit the ball out to give the Matadores the win to even the match, 1-1.
“It feels good when that happens,” said Bailey Mahan, whose mother Kim is the coach, referring to Norton’s saving dig. “It’s more exciting when that happens and brings our team up and fires us up.
“I think we made a good comeback (set two). Even in the first set we made a good comeback, but we just weren’t there yet.”
Midway through the third set with Norwalk leading, Lancers’ defensive specialist Tatianna Navarro served up an ace to expand the lead by six points, 14-8.
The matadors countered with four consecutive points behind the serving of Gonzalez to close the gap to 15-12 and eventually took their first lead, 20-19, since early in the set.
Dorado later tied the set, 23-23, with an ace.
Norwalk committed two net errors as the Matadores took a 2-1 lead in sets with the 25-23 win.
The fourth set saw four ties early, but Norwalk never had the lead the rest of the way, even though the set was close.
Quezada had two kills to keep the Lancers close midway through the set, along with Roseboro.
However, with Mahan serving, the Matadores went on a 6-1 run to extend the lead to 11-6 and kept the pressure on from there with the two or three-point leads until late in the set.
With a four-point La Mirada lead, 24-20, the Lancers made a late run with two consecutive points on Matadores net errors, to trail, 24-22 on two consecutive match points.
Meraz put the match away with a big kill to give the Matadores their first league victory.
“We’re excited to go out there and see our new competition,” said third-year Norwalk Girls Volleyball coach Paola Nava, who played for Norwalk in the Suburban League. “We’ve never seen the new teams. I definitely think that La Mirada is one of our biggest competitors here in our league and possibly Bellflower as well.
“We’re not going to slow down from here. We’re going to keep going and learn from (Tuesday). Round two (At La Mirada) we’re going to be ready.”
What they said:
Kendall Nakano, Norwalk junior OH: “The match definitely could have gone better. We just need to find it in ourselves to give it more and we need to have more character and perseverance on the court instead of shutting down.
When we miss serves that’s easy points for them. At the end of the day, we have to get it back.”
Even though they are La Mirada and they are expected to be a good school, I still feel like we have a chance at winning.”
Paola Nava, Norwalk volleyball coach: “It’s all new to us. We’re excited as coaches. We’re excited to see new teams (in the new configured league).
I really like it and it’s fun to watch these girls play. I played here and learned from the best coaches here and it’s exciting to see these girls are now in this league and they are fighting for their title.”
Bailey Mahan, La Mirada senior OH: “I think we just have to keep playing our strongest. We’ll be fine.
We’re best friends (Nimeh and Mahan) and there’s just good chemistry there and we’re able to work together. It’ll help us a lot. We’ve been playing together since our freshmen year.”