Volleyball Recap: Jserra Catholic Comes Up Short in High-Profile Match with Santa Margarita

JSerra Catholic faced Santa Margarita in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Tuesday. The Lions fell just short of the Eagles by a score of 3-2. The Lions were not able to repeat the success they had when they faced the Eagles earlier this season, when they won 3-0.

JSerra Catholic took a 2-1 lead headed into the fourth set, but sadly they lost the next two. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-20, 13-25, 23-25, 25-15, 15-11.

Makayla Ziegler paced JSerra Catholic's offense, picking up 30 kills. Ziegler got some help from Catherine Beadles and her 53 assists. Beadles was also solid from the service line: she led the team with four aces.

This is the second loss in a row for JSerra Catholic and nudges their season record down to 16-13. Admittedly, the team was facing some tough opposition over that stretch, including 26-4 Mater Dei (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 76% over those games). As for Santa Margarita, they are on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests. That's provided a nice bump to their 17-9 record this season.

We've got plenty of inter-league action coming up soon. JSerra Catholic will take on rival Orange Lutheran at 5:45 p.m. on Thursday. Meanwhile, Santa Margarita is set to square off against their familiar foe Mater Dei at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday.