Lady Broncos rally with thrilling comeback, advance to round 2 of CIF-State tournament

No. 4 – Vista Murrieta (21-10): 27-10-26-25-15=3

No. 13 – Alemany (25-7):           29-25-24-22-05=2

MURRIETA – Rallying from a two sets to none deficit to win in postseason volleyball is one of the toughest things to do in sports because it requires a team to be flawless, knowing their season is over if they lose one more set.

Tuesday night in a matchup of section champions, as part of the CIF-State Southern California Regional tournament, fourth seeded Vista Murrieta found themselves in that predicament against thirteen seed Alemany. But the Lady Broncos buckled down, went to work, and found a way to move on. They’ll advance to a Thursday night rematch with fifth seed Aliso Niguel (their opponent in last Saturday’s CIF-SS division two title match) for a berth in Saturday’s regional semifinals at Bronco Arena.

Vista Murrieta led early in set one before the Warriors came storming back to win in extra points. Alemany then rolled in the second set before dropping close third and fourth sets. In the fifth and final set, the Lady Broncos jumped out to an early lead and were never seriously threatened.

According to reports Claire Little led the Broncos with 32 kills, following up 35 in last Saturday’s CIF-SS division two championship match while Liliana Montes added 11 kills and 4 total blocks. Megan Herbert recorded five total blocks.

In other CIF-State Southern California girls’ volleyball matches involving area teams:

Division 1:

La Costa Canyon (No. 1) defeated Temecula Valley (No. 16) – 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-18)

Division 5:

Orange Vista (No. 8) defeated AGBU/Canoga Park (No. 9) – 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-23)

Exeter (No. 2) defeated Rancho Christian (No. 15) – 3-2 (no set scores reported)

Up next:

Round 2: Thursday, Nov. 10

Division 1:

Aliso Niguel (No. 5) at Vista Murrieta (No. 4) – 6 p.m.

Division 5:

Orange Vista (No. 8) at Marshall (No. 1) – 6 p.m. (Bernstein HS)

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Derryl Trujillo can be reached by email at socaltrekkie@gmail.com.