Lady Dragons halt Analy rush

Top-seed Sonoma reaches SCL tourney final, looks for high NCS seed|

After roaring through the Sonoma County League unbeaten in 12 regular-season matches en route to capturing their fourth straight title, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity volleyball girls entered the postseason as the top seed for the annual SCL Tournament.

In Tuesday night’s SCL tourney opening-round match in Pfeiffer Gym, the Lady Dragons hosted fourth-seeded Analy and took up where they left off at the end of the regular season, dominating the match from the get-go and breezing through the first and second sets for 25-11 and 25-16 victories, respectively.

But in a seesaw third set, Sonoma took a small early lead and was pulling away toward a three-set sweep when, holding a 19-14 advantage, the visiting Tiger girls turned the tide of the match and riding a wave of momentum took their first lead of the evening at 20-19 and held on for a stunning 25-23 win.

Then, in the fourth set, Analy jumped in front and managed to keep a slight lead until the Lady Dragons took a 19-18 advantage and eventually secured a 25-19 victory and 3-1 triumph to reach last night’s SCL tourney title match against second-seed Healdsburg – results not available at presstime.

In its tourney opener at home, Healdsburg rallied from two sets down to edge third-seeded Petaluma.

Leading the Sonoma spikers (23-3 record) past the Tigers were senior Mackenzie Albrecht’s  48 assists, 12 digs, four kills and one service ace; senior Delaney Swanson’s 21 digs, 16 kills and two aces; sophomore Jenna Mak’s 17 digs, six aces and five kills; sophomore Kiara Miles’ 12 kills, 12 digs, two aces and one block; senior Hannah Herrick’s 12 digs, four kills and two aces; senior Ciara Smith’s 10 kills and three blocks; and junior Sami Von Gober’s three digs and two aces.

The Lady Dragons are rated one of the top Division-3 teams in the North Coast Section and should receive a high seeding on Sunday for the NCS playoffs, which begin next week.

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