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2008
By MERISA JENSEN
Valley Press Staff Writer
Paraclete walked away with a 22-25, 25-20, 30-28, 25-22 win, but not without some effort.
After jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the first set, the Spirits let the Wildcats back into the game. Paraclete's miscommunication and errors gave Windward the game.
"They came out really flat and they all knew it," Paraclete assistant coach Mike Kelley said. "They knew it all stemmed from the passing and if you can't pass, then you can't set."
In the second and third sets, the Spirits started to fire on all cylinders. They put the momentum on their side for good with an electric third set.
In that set, Paraclete (8-1, 3-0) began to hustle more as it exchanged point-for-point with Windward (4-6, 2-2) for most of the game. Near the end of the set, the Spirits saved three match points with long rallies and momentum-changing kills.
With Paraclete down 28-27, Valerie Dluzak hit a cross-court kill to the right side to tie the game. The Spirits then posted two straight points to get their second set win of the match.
"Those are the ones where you just tell them, 'If you want it, you got to take it,'" Kelley said. "If you can win two (sets) in a row, then that third one will come easy, but they were just going back and forth. They like that, they like when the pressure is on more so than when we have the lead."
Windward recorded several of its points on blocks. But Dluzak, who led the Spirits with eight kills, found a way to avoid the heavy blocking by the Wildcats.
"I have to cut shot it a lot to get around the block or over the block, so that's what I try to do," Dluzak said. "It's hard to do a cut shot."
Libero Tori Mischel saved a lot of points for the Spirits with her 33 digs, three kills and two aces.
Paraclete's next match is at Crossroads in Santa Monica on Thursday.
"It's going to be a tough week," Kelley said. "We have Crossroads and Whittier Christian coming up. It's a good look into what our league is going to be this year. So, it showed us really what we have in front of us."
