Girls’ volleyball: King is crowned 2AA champion
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His players like to call Riverside King Coach Gene Krieger the ‘man with a plan.’
On Saturday, he devised the gameplan and his team executed it to perfection in a 25-19, 25-13, 22-25, 25-17 triumph over Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos in the Division 2AA championship match at Santiago Canyon College.
The Wolves (26-7) finished second to Corona Santiago in the Big VIII League, but upset top-seeded North Torrance in the quarterfinal round last Saturday. Junior outside hitter Kalei Greeley led the way with 29 kills and 23 digs.
‘This broke our streak of starting off really slow and that was good,’ Greeley said. ‘We’re all on Cloud Nine right now. We had a really dedicated crowd and that helped a lot.’
Jessica Chase added 16 kills and senior setter Tiana Barnett had 56 assists and nine digs for King, which played 12 ranked teams before league even started. Players had to keep notebooks and were given homework throughout the season. They also sat through ‘Motivaton Mondays’ to mentally prepare, and in the end all of the hard work paid off.
‘I’ll take first in CIF and second in league any day,’ Barnett said. ‘We have really good chemistry this year and that’s a big part of it.’
Ashten Smith-Gooden finished with 15 kills and 12 digs for Baseline League winner Los Osos (24-13), which knocked off second-seeded South Torrance in the semifinals Tuesday. Jenna Willis and Ashley Kaylor each added 10 kills for the Grizzlies, who avoided the sweep on a block by Kerrigan Hecht and Smith-Gooden to win the third set.
At Cypress College, second-seeded San Pedro Rolling Hills Prep outlasted top-seeded Santa Monica Pacifica Christian in five sets in the Division 4A final. The Huskies (15-5) squandered six set points in the third before prevailing 27-25 to take a two sets to one lead.
-- Steve Galluzzo