Foothill goes on late run to dismiss Liberty

For the first time this fall, Foothill’s girls volleyball players are actually excited to have practice.

The Falcons extended their season with a 25-18, 20-25, 25-23, 25-19 victory over Liberty on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Sunrise Regional tournament at Coronado High School.

Whitley Brow had 14 kills, two aces and 11 digs, and Brooke Bykowski added eight kills for fifth-seeded Foothill (19-16, 6-4 Sunrise League), which plays top-seeded Coronado on Thursday.

“We had been struggling during the season to not compound our mistakes,” Falcons coach Krysta Ortiz said. “It was nice to see them execute that tonight and come together as a team.”

Foothill relied on a strong service game to wrangle the first set. Liberty responded by doing the same thing in the second set, but the Falcons regrouped to win a back-and-forth third.

The final set was practically tied for its entirety until the Falcons seized control and concluded the match with a 7-1 scoring run. Foothill’s players rejoiced as the Patriots (22-13, 7-3) accepted their fate a few feet away.

“We structure the drills in our practice to be game-like and to try and put stress on them … so they learn to be uncomfortable in those situations,” Ortiz said. “I think that helped out tonight a lot.”

Foothill senior Savannah Lopez said her team had a sense of urgency before the match, and the upperclassmen relished the playoff stage.

“Our team was thinking about losing, actually. They were talking about and saying this was going to be a tough game,” she said. “Some of the seniors … and juniors told the underclassmen, ‘Hey, we got this.’ That really helped.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.