Unhappy feet

By Michael Ashcraft --

They are happy girls. But they needed happy feet.

Frida Macias is emblematic. She likes art and architecture. At least once a day, she laughs until she cries. She's happy-go-lucky.

But Frida and her teammates, facing the toughest team in the league, didn't have happy feet. On Thursday in Camarillo, Beacon Hill Academy delivered hits that feel like lightning bolts from Zeus, and a lot of their serves landed like attacks.

Lighthouse Christian Academy, if it was going to put a fight, had to move quickly on the court.

They didn't. LCA lost in three straight sets: 10-25, 14-25, 11-25.

"We shouldn't let so many balls drop," Coach Jessica Young said. "When they decide to work hard and sacrifice their bodies, then we'll be better."

So happy feet that move fast.

"I feel like I could have done better by moving my feet," Frida said. "But overall I think I did really good for this good team. At sometimes I was a little frustrated with myself because I wasn't really moving my feet."

LCA also needed to dive to return lightning bolts.

With an 8-2 season, the Saints will likely get into playoffs.

There's a reason Beacon Hill Academy was undefeated this season. They have a team of upperclassmen who have trained intensively for four years. A couple of their girls were pretty tall, but even the shorter ones hit the ball expertly. Overall, they were a efficient volleyball factory cranking out aces and hits.

Lighthouse, comprised by mostly freshmen and sophomores, was outclassed. It was an uneven match.

Beacon Hill harvested points in clusters like grapes.

"The girls have been around for the last three years," said Beacon Coach Manny de la Huerta. "A bunch of good girls who have been with me for the last three years. We went through the pandemic and just kept playing and playing, and they've done really well."

To compete, Lighthouse needed to reduce its error ratio and needed to "sacrifice their bodies," in the words of Coach Jessica.

"I think they played pretty well. We haven't played many teams where we actually had to block. They just started doing that, and they did a good job," Coach Jessica said. "You couldn't tell we were shorter based on how much we blocked. We could have blocked better if we had taller people."

The Saints got their first block of the season at Tuesday's game, and managed six Thursday against Beacon Hill. Two of those were unreturnable blocks, Coach Jessica said.

Every time, the LCA girls managed a point, they cheered wildly. They knew they were playing against a higher level team, and flushed with pride to stand up to them.

"I think our hitting wasn't that good, but that's because we were working so hard to return their hits," Coach Jessica said. "We couldn't get a good set to attack. Some of our attacks weren't so great. We're going to have to continue to work on our attacks."

With the overall progress of the Saints, Coach Jessica will pressure the administration to pay for court practice. A small school, LCA practices on a court that is 2/3 normal size. One side of the volleyball court is full size, and the other is half size. There are tree branches in the way. The court is asphalt, so no diving. To get gym practice is additional expense.

Thursday's loss meant LCA's winning season was bookended by downers. Its first game against Newbury Adventist Academy was also a loss -- a hard-fought close loss, but a loss.

"We shouldn't have missed any serves, we shouldn't have missed our hits and we shouldn't have let so many balls drop," Coach Jessica explained. "Those are the three failures. But overall they did good. I think our girls felt sad because some of the serves felt like attacks."

Also read other LCA games:

Vs. SFVA Oct. 12.Vs. Westmark School Oct. 7
Vs Summit View Sept. 29
Vs. Ojai Valley School Sept. 28.
Vs. SCVi Sept. 23.
Vs. Newbury Park Adventist Academy Sept. 9
Vs. Hillcrest Christian Sept. 15.
Vs. Gorman Learning Center Sept 16.

Michael Ashcraft teaches journalism at the Lighthouse Christian Academy, near Pacific Palisades, CA.