The impressive playoff run for Wilson girls’ volleyball ended at home on Wednesday night in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 quarterfinals. Culver City came to Long Beach and used a big comeback and a big block to best the Bruins 25-23, 25-22, 13-25, 25-17.
Wilson (23-15) hadn’t reached the quarterfinals since 2014.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity to win each one of the sets, we just fell a little short,” Wilson coach Carlos Briceno said. “My hats off to my girls. They played hard all season. We had to overcome a lot of adversity with some injuries and new lineups.”
The Bruins took an 8-0 lead and led 20-10 in the first set before Culver City (25-7) closed it on a 15-3 run to take the set. Wilson led again in the second set, 16-13, before the Centaurs came charging back to take the set 25-22.
“The turning point was after the first set,” Wilson junior Risa Sena said. “When they came back (in the second set) it kind of effected our mindset. We tried hard to fight back but it just wasn’t enough.”
Sena led the charge in the lopsided third set victory and finished with a team-high 16 kills. Wilson junior Doris Chuang chipped in 13 kills, and junior Katharine Mumm had eight kills.
“We’ve got a lot of good players returning so we’ve got a lot of good things to look forward to in the future,” Briceno said. “We had some great role models in the seniors we had and they’ll be missed tremendously because they’re amazing.”
Culver City closed out the victory with five of its 15 team blocks in the fourth set.
“It’s confidence and knowing we can do it,” Sena said of the lessons learned during the playoffs. “We’re going to continue to work harder because we’re going to have a lot of returning players and we’re going to come into next year even stronger.”
Sena and Briceno said that this postseason run will only make the program better.
“There’s no substitute for experience,” Briceno said. “I think getting this far these girls have that taste of winning. They’re going to be hungry.”
