Liberty shook off a slight dip in production midway through the match, regrouped to win a pivotal second set and then wrapped things up for a 25-17, 27-25, 27-19 victory over Visalia-Redwood.
“Going up 2-0 just kind of gives you a little confidence going into the third set,” said Liberty coach Morgan Dake, whose team capitalized on solid defense and multiple service mistakes by the Rangers to win the second set. “It just gives you a little wiggle room, which is nice.”
No. 3 seeded Liberty (28-6) will now play at No. 2 Clovis North in Tuesday’s semifinals, with the winner earning a shot at a section title. The Patriots lost to the Broncos in a five-set marathon last month and are eager to have another crack at them, Dake said. Clovis North defeated No. 7 Exeter, 25-18, 25-21, 25-12 in their quarterfinal match.
“I couldn’t have written it any better myself,” said Dake, whose team led 7-1 in the fifth set in their previous match against Clovis North before losing that decisive set 15-13. “We’re very evenly matched. The girls are excited to get back there. It’s something that we’ve kind of talked about all season. We’ve been preparing for it mentally. It should be fun.”
Redwood (32-4) entered the match on an 18-game win streak and had lost only one set during the run.
The Patriots, who last won the Division I title in 2016, handed them another with a 25-17 win in the opener, and then battled back with the Rangers looking to even the match in the second set.
Redwood opened the second set with four straight points, but Liberty rallied and eventually tied the match, setting the stage for a see-saw battle. The Patriots edges ahead 12-8, but the Rangers scored four straight. Liberty took a 19-14 lead, but Redwood countered with a 5-0 run to tie it at 19-19.
The Rangers regained the lead 22-21, but it was their last of the set, with the Patriots closing things out on a Redwood hitting error.
"I think it was really important for us to try to keep our energy high, battle and keep doing the little stuff right,” said Liberty senior Emma Fredrick, who closed out the match with a cross-court shot, one of seven in the decisive third set. She finished with a team-high 18 kills and added nine digs and two aces. “We just needed to pull it together and I think we started to, toward the end of the first set.”
Leading 2-0, Liberty began to pull away midway through the third set, and led 17-11 on an ace by Fredrick, but Redwood scored the next four points and Dake called for a timeout leading just 17-15.
The teams exchanged points until back-to-back kills by Grace Witcher extended the lead to 23-18, and Fredrick scored the final two points to close out the match.
Paige Sentes had a team-high 13 digs and two acces, and Witcher added eight kills.
“That’s a great team, I mean what are they 30-3?” Dake said. “So just the dominance they’ve been able to show, I mean, that’s a fantastic team. I think that helps us because we had to battle. We didn’t have any easy first round. That’s a great match for us to start off with. To kind of prepare us to go into Clovis North. Because we know whenever we go there, it’s going to be a battle.”