Albiez powers Feather River past Long Beach in women's volleyball quarterfinal #4

N4 Feather River (29-7) at S1 Long Beach City (23-2), 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 25-22

WALNUT -- Chloe Albiez started out swinging and kept on doing so in scoring a match-high 20 kills to help Feather River defeat the South's #1 seed Long Beach City College in four sets in a 3C2A Women's Volleyball Championship quarterfinals on Friday night.

This sets up Saturday's semifinals as Feather River will face American River (2 p.m.) while defending state champ San Diego Mesa plays North #1 seed Fresno City (5 p.m.)

Albiez, a 6-foot freshman outside hitter, scored five kills in the opening set as FRC opened up a 17-9 lead and later Lucy Ryan scored a kill and a set-point block with Mia Rivera to give the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Like all the four teams that lost their quarterfinals, Long Beach fought back by winning set #2 as Ryannah Gagau scored five kills and Tainea Allen added four. Feather River led 11-9, but the Vikings stormed back with a 13-6 run to take control capped by a kill down the line by Gagau. The sophomore also fired a kill for set point that knotted the match at 1-1.

In the pivotal third set, the Vikings trailed just 14-13 but Albiez stepped up with two cross-court kills and Tiare Faupula rifled a kill at the net that capped a 3-point win and a 2-1 Golden Eagles lead.

In the fourth, Tainea Allen scored a kill for an 18-16 LBCC lead and later the Vikings seemed poised to extend the match to five, up 20-17. Instead, FRC responded as they forced Long Beach into a several attack errors and took the lead 22-21 on a kill by Lucy Ryan. After Ane Tuinauvai powered a kill, Long Beach got sideout only to make a long serve for Feather's River match point.

"Just like us, Long Beach plays with a lot of energy, they bring a great fan base, and we just wanted to match that energy," said Feather River head coach Sarah Ritchie. "I knew four minutes into the match that Chloe was our hot hitter, and once we find someone on a roll that's who we are going to get the ball to. We started to tip the ball in the second set, and we just can't do that and expect it to work. Our game is big hitting, and we got back to that in the last two sets.

"We have so many freshmen that have stepped up and tonight that was players like Albiez and Teya Gibbs, who played such great defense."

Setter Maya Cann dished out 28 assists and made nine digs, Ane Tuinauvai, who Ritchie says has been a "gamechanger" since returning from an injury that kept her out much of the season, scored 10 kills and made 10 digs, Ryan tallied nine kills and Ledua Koi came off the bench to power eight kills. Gibbs set 13 assists and led the squad on 11 digs plus an ace.

For Long Beach, Gagau led the team in both kills (11) and digs (11), Enaya Vaielua had another all-around effort on 27 assists, six kills, nine digs, and four blocks, and Tainea Allen floored 11 kills. Jubilee Allen tallied six kills and made six blocks. 

"People don't know the amount of adversity and challenges our players have gone through to get to where we were able to achieve this season," said LBCC head coach Tyler Jackson. "These players show up for each other and I can't be more proud of them. It stinks to lose, but we came such a long way."

Release by Robert Lewis, CCCWVCA/3C2A State Tournament SID