Monarchs' repeat-title bid denied in mountains

TEHACHAPI — Exeter coach Alana Montgomery is not one for excuses, but Thursday night’s Division III Valley championship game at Tehachapi provided a number of reasons why the Monarchs lost 3-0.

Before the match even began, Montgomery’s 24-8 squad faced an uphill battle having lost second-leading left-side hitter Tiffany Diaz to a knee injury in the semifinal against Ridgeview.

Four points into the match, middle blocker Amanda Monge twisted her foot and sat out the remainder of that game.

Moments later, Patricia Brito — second on the team in assists — twisted her knee.

“We started out really frustrated. Nothing was going our way,” Montgomery said. “Just the fact that we came so close and we had two key players hurt... I can’t help but wonder.”

Though Monge eventually returned in the second game and led the Monarchs with 10 kills and Brito soldiered on through the pain with a team-high 12 assists, Exeter certainly had a case of “What if?”

“I think it would’ve been really close,” Montgomery added. “I thought we could at least get one game off of them.”

The setbacks were too much to overcome in the opening game as the Warriors rallied from an initial Exeter lead and won perhaps the only uncontested game, 25-17.

Exeter outside hitter Ashtyn Atkinson threw in a couple more factors -— fear and self-defeat.

“We came in a little intimidated,” she said. “We were up the first game, but they came back and we got down on ourselves.”

When Monge pounded a Brito-assisted kill to break a 5-5 tie in the second game, the Monarchs pulled ahead to 11-7 — their highest lead of the game.

But the Warriors emerged from a timeout and reeled off a 5-0 run during which they flexed their advantage in height.

Tehachapi’s Jasmine Julye -— one of the Warriors’ three players at 5-foot-10 or taller — nailed one of her seven kills. That was followed by a block from 6-foot-1 Persephonie Devereaux for the point.

Devereaux (11 blocks), Julye (10 blocks) and Sarah Carpenetti (seven blocks) simply controlled the net, returning numerous Monarch spikes for scores as Tehachapi won the second game, 25-20.

Atkinson, a senior playing in her last game as a second-year varsity Monarch, tried to get her teammates revved up as she killed three of her five in the third game. Jessica Runyon did her part with 13 digs and two aces.

But too many errors, including Tori Davis’ (11 assists) serve that hit net, and too many Exeter shots landed out for Exeter to gain any momentum.

“We had a lot of mistakes and a lot of it was us,” Atkinson admitted, “but (the Warriors were) great too.”

Tehachapi’s left-side hitter, Sarah Horcher, devastated the Monarch defense with eight of her 21 kills in the third game. When teammate Kelsey Kapiztke slammed one of her seven kills for the 25-18 victory, the Warriors (29-4) rushed the floor in a dog pile.

It didn’t help that the majority of the Warriors, who returned seven seniors from last year’s squad which lost to Exeter in the 2008 Valley championship game in similar fashion, were looking to return the favor.

Atkinson, who also had 11 digs, was on the winning side last fall and didn’t exactly expect this year’s Monarchs to make much noise after graduating 11 seniors.

“I honestly didn’t; it’s shocking,” she said. “We just worked really hard in practice and it paid off when we made it here. It would’ve been nice to win, but second place is great too.”

As for Montgomery, who completed her 20th year as Exeter coach and brought her girls to the championship game for the 11th time during that span, there was still hope the Monarchs could pull it off.

“You’re just so glad you get here,” said Montgomery, whose Monarchs have won five of the past eight championships. “But then you get here and you want more.”

The loss doesn’t take anything away from them, she said.

“Hard work does pay off,” she continued. “If they had not worked as hard as they had, they would not have made it this far. The injuries shook us up, but despite all that, they did the best with their circumstances.”