Bobcat duo comes up just short
The Saddleback beach volleyball season came to a close on Saturday at the 3C2A Southern California Regional Pairs Championships at Mt. San Antonio College. The duo of Sophie Vienna and Meg Gardner came up one spot short of making the state tournament.
Vienna and Gardner had a marathon weekend after getting knocked into the consolation bracket to determine the final three pairs that would advance to the state tournament at Long Beach City College this coming weekend.
Vienna and Gardner opened with a 21-15 victory over the team of Baron and Saunders from Bakersfield College before surviving a three-set thriller (19-21, 21-12, 15-9) with the duo of Behrens and Lishman from Ventura College.
Vienna and Gardner then needed to win one more match on Saturday but came up just short. They had a shot in the 18th place game against a team from Long Beach City (Allen & Vaielua) but were on the wrong end of a 18-21, 13-21 match against the No. 3 seed in the tournament. They then had one more opportunity in the 19th place game but ran out of gas, falling to Beezer/Heckel from Moorpark College (21-17, 21-7).
Saddleback finished 9-9 for the season in team competition.