GILROY — North Monterey County didn’t beat Gilroy. Gilroy beat itself.
After four tough games, the Mustangs fell 3-1 to NMC Tuesday at home. Gilroy lost 25-16, 22-25, 20-25, 19-25 to the Condors, exchanging the lead 17 times and tying it 20 times in Games 2 and 3.
“I think we are our own worst enemy when we are misserving at opportune moments and making errors,” Gilroy coach Elaine Price said after a long pause. “You cannot — in close games — hand points to the other team on misserves and our errors. When you score one point and hand two more to them and score one more point and hand two more to them on errors, you make it really hard on yourself.”
After winning Game 1, Gilroy was locked in a fierce battle with NMC for most of Game 2. A series of a Leilani Mah kill, a Sarah Weiby ace, a Jenna Clonts block and another Mah kill led to Gilroy finally breaking away for an 18-15 lead. But the Condors’ blocking started making stops of its own and they were able to gain the lead off back-to-back kills from Tori Teraji and a Karli Grajek ace, putting NMC ahead 22-19 late.
It was the same song and dance in Game 3, where things looked promising for the Mustangs after they gained an early 8-4 lead. Errors and missed serves allowed the Condors right back into things and the two teams began exchanging leads once again.
A misserve and an error opened the door for NMC late which allowed the Condors to take a 19-17 lead — a lead they wouldn’t give back.
“It’s a momentum killer is what it is,” Price said. “When you misserve it’s an error, when you error it’s an error and those are just momentum killers. You have to continue to dig yourself up out of those holes. …You’ve got to be able to swing the momentum to your side and you’ve got to do that error-less.”
The Mustangs only lead in Game 4 was a 5-3 lead early before the Condors offense got rolling, going on an 8-point run to jump ahead 12-5 at that point.
There were bright spots for Gilroy, however, despite the loss. Mah and Clonts were stellar at the middle hitter position all night long. Clonts came up with three kills and four blocks while Mah racked up nine kills and three blocks.
“I try to be everywhere just in case the girls are scared to get it (the ball),” Mah said. “If they don’t feel confident I just tell them, ‘Be confident, you got it.’ If they think that they can’t get to it, then I go.”
Clarrisa Quezada led the team with eight digs while Alexis Conley had six digs and an ace. Weiby had seven kills in the game for Gilroy.
Gilroy will look to rebound against Mt. Madonna at 5:30 p.m. tonight at home.
