Sage Hill denied in semifinals

BELLFLOWER — The Sage Hill School girls’ volleyball team was on the cusp of reaching the CIF Southern Section finals for the fifth time in six seasons.

The first two sets went to the top-seeded Lightning in the Division 3 semifinals against No. 4 Lakewood St. Joseph. Sage Hill just needed to win one more set on the road Tuesday to advance.

The Jesters found a way to stay alive, winning the third set, stealing the fourth set, and then pulling away in the fifth set. St. Joseph pulled off a spectacular 19-25, 23-25, 25-16, 26-24, 15-11 come-from-behind win at St. John Bosco High.

St. Joseph (24-13) will make its first section finals appearance in 15 years. The Jesters play for the championship on either Friday or Saturday at Cerritos College, and against No. 2 Glendora (25-4), which swept Foothill on Tuesday.

The players making it possible for St. Joseph were Sualua Pepe, Kate Baldwin and Olivia Maxwell, who all came up big in the decisive fifth set. Pepe had five kills in Game 5 and Baldwin added two kills, while Maxwell had two solo blocks and a kill. The blocks turned out to be critical, sparking a 6-0 run to put St. Joseph up, 12-6.

Sage Hill (24-10) called a timeout, hoping to stop the momentum, and the move worked. Amiyah De’Long and Danielle Beder each produced two kills, part of a 4-0 spurt by the Lightning to trim the deficit to 12-10.

But Maxwell responded with a kill for the Jesters. After a Beder kill, Pepe closed out the match with two straight kills to end Sage Hill’s section title hopes.

“We were one point away,” said Sage Hill Coach Dan Thomassen, whose team had match point in Game 4. “I thought we played well all five sets. We had a little stretch in the third [set] where we got stuck in a rotation. But I love the way we played. That’s a great team.

“We’re not going to make the [section] finals, but we’ll likely get into [the CIF State Southern California Regional Division II playoffs].”