HIGH HEAT -- Griffin Ciara Harriague leaps up to smash home one of her patented "fast balls." Jonatan Muñoz, InternationalGriffinettes easy winners over Eaglettes
The International junior varsity girls scored a 2-0 win over Christian Learning in the girls semifinal game played at International Tuesday, but to do it they had to suppress an attempted Eagle comeback in the second set.
The Griffins will now face Cooperative in the championship game Thursday: The Jaguars, who finished first in the regular season, drew a by in the semifinals. Cambridge did not field a team.
The International girls cruised to an easy win in the first set, 25-13. The Griffins jumped out to an early 8-1 lead, largely on the strength of strong serves by Ciara Harriague. The Eagles cut the lead down to 15-10, but Harriague went back to the service line and put the game more or less on ice as she reeled off seven straight points, two of them clean aces.
When she finally hit a serve long International was clearly in command, 21-11, and closed out the victory in short order after that.
The second set was a different story as the two teams battled evenly all the way to 19-19. Many of the points were decided on serves -- better or worse. Both sides hit a number of bad serves, and both sides had trouble keeping the ball in play when the serve was good. There were only a few long rallies.
After the tie at 19 Pamela Suarez fired in three hard serves, one of them an ace, to move the Griffins into the lead, and after the score went to 23-21 another hard-serving Griffin. Maria Fernanda Gutierrez,fired in a pair of fast serves to complete the Griffin victory.
The Griffins also got outstanding play from Nicole Sinclair in receiving the ball and making key saves.
Rebekah Kienzle was the outstanding player for Christian Learning.
The other players on the victorious Griffin team were Carolina Baldivieso, Irene Vergara, Fabiana Zelada, Renati Maggi, Katherin Ceballos, Micaela Pedrazas, and Ana Laura Gutierrez.
Besides Kienzle, the Eagle line-up included Jessica Schroeder, Rebecca Enns, Emily Ordoñez, Michelle Ling, Jessica Suarez, Luara Velarde, Veronica Apodaca, Elizabeth Suarez, and Emily Mercado.
The International junior varsity girls scored a 2-0 win over Christian Learning in the girls semifinal game played at International Tuesday, but to do it they had to suppress an attempted Eagle comeback in the second set.
The Griffins will now face Cooperative in the championship game Thursday: The Jaguars, who finished first in the regular season, drew a by in the semifinals. Cambridge did not field a team.
The International girls cruised to an easy win in the first set, 25-13. The Griffins jumped out to an early 8-1 lead, largely on the strength of strong serves by Ciara Harriague. The Eagles cut the lead down to 15-10, but Harriague went back to the service line and put the game more or less on ice as she reeled off seven straight points, two of them clean aces.
When she finally hit a serve long International was clearly in command, 21-11, and closed out the victory in short order after that.
The second set was a different story as the two teams battled evenly all the way to 19-19. Many of the points were decided on serves -- better or worse. Both sides hit a number of bad serves, and both sides had trouble keeping the ball in play when the serve was good. There were only a few long rallies.
After the tie at 19 Pamela Suarez fired in three hard serves, one of them an ace, to move the Griffins into the lead, and after the score went to 23-21 another hard-serving Griffin. Maria Fernanda Gutierrez,fired in a pair of fast serves to complete the Griffin victory.
The Griffins also got outstanding play from Nicole Sinclair in receiving the ball and making key saves.
Rebekah Kienzle was the outstanding player for Christian Learning.
The other players on the victorious Griffin team were Carolina Baldivieso, Irene Vergara, Fabiana Zelada, Renati Maggi, Katherin Ceballos, Micaela Pedrazas, and Ana Laura Gutierrez.
Besides Kienzle, the Eagle line-up included Jessica Schroeder, Rebecca Enns, Emily Ordoñez, Michelle Ling, Jessica Suarez, Luara Velarde, Veronica Apodaca, Elizabeth Suarez, and Emily Mercado.
