There was a strange connection between Sunday's homecoming week powder puff game and Monday night's 2-1 (25-22, 16-25, 26-24) win against Sacred Heart. With the Lady Pintos down 20-17 in the first set, California head coach Julie Bailey called a timeout and used the powder puff game from the night before as motivation.
"They played powder puff yesterday and the juniors did not want to lose to the seniors," Bailey said with a laugh.
I said to the juniors, you're playing the seniors in powder puff, don't let them beat you. I don't know. It did whatever it needed to do.
It worked. California ripped off six-straight points to take the 23-20 lead, and they went on the take the first set 25-22.
But the motivation didn't last long, as Sacred Heart jumped out to a 7-3 set two lead. After California cut the lead to to 8-7, the Lady Gremlins pushed the lead back out to 14-11, then to 21-13.
Sacred Heart's outside hitter Anna Callis was too much for the Lady Pintos, as she recorded back-to-back kills during Sacred Heart's run.
Early in the third set, it was a Hannah Wilhoit show. She had four early kills to give the Lady Gremlins a 5-2 lead, then Callis had a pair of kills to take a 9-4 lead. The lead was pushed to 17-12 after three more kills by Wilhoit.
After a 4-0 run by California, Sacred Heart scored four of the next five points to take a 21-17 lead, prompting Bailey to call a timeout.
With Wilhoit not on the front line, the Lady Pintos scored five-straight to take their first lead of the third set, 22-21.
"She's just an amazing hitter and Kayla (Allison) was able to dig some of her balls," Bailey said. "When we could hit at them, it made it much more difficult for No. 17 to get the ball. We needed to capitalize when she wasn't on the front row."
Sacred Heart did retake the lead 24-23, but the Lady Gremlins suffered a return-error to let California tie the game, then an ace by Chloe Schenewerk and a Cameron Meyer kill sealed the victory for the Lady Pintos.
Allison recorded 24 of the team's 53 digs to lead the team.
"Kayla is outstanding," Bailey said. "She really showed what she can do tonight. You get so used to the amazing plays she does, so it's just expected, and I don't always give her the recognition I should. Tonight, the plays she made were huge and it was a huge difference in the game."
The JVA team won its game against Sacred Heart a lot easier then the varsity squad, defeating the Lady Gremlins 2-0 (25-9, 26-6).