Woodbridge holds off Northwood challenge for second straight PCL victory

Woodbridge’s junior middle blocker Madison Lyon kills a ball past Northwood’s (9) Paige Londy and (2) Soleil Cotton on Monday night.

Woodbridge’s girls volleyball team improved its Pacific Coast League record to 2-0 defeating Northwood in four sets Monday night at Woodbridge.

Woodbridge won the first set 25-17 and Northwood took the second set 25-21 to even the match at 1-1.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo.

The Warriors closed out the match winning 25-21, 25-23.

“Obviously, we didn’t play very clean in my opinion,” said Woodbridge Coach Alan Ho. “Take nothing away from them; they made us battle. We obviously didn’t play up to our standards and what we feel like we should be doing.

“But give them all the credit in the world because they forced us to have to be better and we didn’t necessarily step up to the challenge on that. I felt like our serve-receive needed a little bit of work. Our hitting selection needed to be a little better. I felt like we hit a lot of balls into bad spots.

“We need to be smarter about what we do.”

Jennifer Leitman led Woodbridge with 21 kills while Beverly Braun had 10 kills.

The Warriors also got a strong effort from Minami Creamer, who had nine service aces and 18 digs.

Northwood had some solid play in the second set rallying from an early 8-6 deficit.

In the fourth set, the Timberwolves jumped to a 6-2 lead before Woodbridge tied the set 13-13 and closed out the match.

“I think we come out thinking that they’re a good team and we can’t compete with them so we kind of start off slow from the very beginning,” said first-year Northwood Coach Cole Murray. “But we try and instill motivation and I think that goes a long way knowing that they can play with the other team and I think once that started to get through their minds we started to play a little bit better.

“We had trouble on their serves. They’re a good serving team so we had to really dial in and focus on every single point on serves. Hats off to Jenny (Leitman). She’s a great player. We were trying to do what we can to stop her blocking wise but she was finding ways.

“But I think we showed a great step forward for Northwood volleyball. I think the sky is the limit. If we keep pushing, I see great things happening toward the end of the season.”

Murray said he was pleased with libero Jenna Kung, who he said is the “hardest worker out there” and sophomore setter Stephanie Chen, who provided excellent leadership for the Timberwolves (1-1 in league).