An upset here,
An upset there.
An upset everywhere.
One of the least likeliest teams to do so walked away on top.
Golden West Asics beat Mizuno Long Beach 25-23 in the finals of the SCVA 15s Regionals on Sunday at the American Sports Center in Anaheim. Results
The recent paper trail leading into the tournament suggested few teams in the top 20 were more unlikely to finish first than Golden West, which ended the final three mandatories in 9th, 13th and 21st place and entered Regionals in 13 place overall.
But after Kaitlyn Gibbons put down the final ball of the day, Golden West did just that.
What the standings won’t tell is the team is finally healthy, playing just its second tournament with its full lineup.
Gibbons missed five tournaments with a partially torn ligament in her ankle and setter Carly Bergen missed four with a broken finger. The team’s other outside hitter Gabrielle Nguyen also missed time this season.
The team’s only loss this weekend was to Surf City, 25-13, 21-25, 15-9, Saturday in the final group match.
“It’s awesome to peak at this time,” Golden West Asics coach Dave Huber said. “We’ve been struggling with injuries and we haven’t been able to breakthrough against the top teams.“
Golden West’s Sunday run included beating Laguna Beach and Temecula Valley in group play and Long Beach, Gene’s Team and TStreet in bracket play.
The wins over Laguna Beach and Temecula both went 15-13 in Game 3.
“The team’s been struggling to win those type of matches,” Huber said. “It was nice to see them not shut down afterward and keep working. They wanted another and another.”
Golden West defeated TStreet, 25-23, 26-24, in the quarterfinals and Gene’s Team, 25-17, in the semifinals.
Golden West built a 12-9 lead against Long Beach in the final. Long Beach’s Rayenne Hale’s kill tied it at 13.
From there, Golden West went on a 5-1 run, punctuated by a Gibbons ace, and led 19-14.
Long Beach stormed back, and pulled to within, 22-21, on Nikia Withers’ block. Golden West won the next two points but a hitting error made it 24-23 before Gibbons ended it.
“We were definitely getting better,” Huber said. “My goal was to finish top four. I thought that was realistic.”
Long Beach finished second to Gene’s Team after losing in Group 2’s last match.
Long Beach responded by handing Surf City its only loss of the tournament, 25-21, 20-25, 15-6, in the quarterfinals.
A showdown with Coast didn’t happen after Coast defaulted the semifinal match. Coast was playing with only one setter and she sprained her ankle in the final group-play match.
“It was an unfortunate situation with the injury,” Long Beach coach Lance Aoki. “We always have good battles.”
Long Beach clinched second place overall in the point standings.
It concludes a successful SCVA season for the team, which will shift its attention to the upcoming JO’s. Long Beach finished 2nd, 5th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd at the five mandatories this season.
“It’s been a really great year,” Aoki said. “I’m pleased where we are at. It’s good.”
Kaitlyn Gibbons has a lot of upside as a player.