NEWPORT BEACH The final two sets of Thursday’s Sunset League girls volleyball match between eighth-ranked Huntington Beach and ninth-ranked Newport Harbor could best describe the levels of madness that’s ahead in the race for the league title.
In the fourth set, the Oilers had set point at 24-18, however, the Sailors wouldn’t go away, fighting and clawing back to tie the set at 24, before eventually losing to send the match to a fifth set.
Late in the final set, the Sailors had a 13-11 lead, only to have the Oilers tie the set and eventually take the lead with set point at 15-14. The end finally came on consecutive kills from Hannah Russell, to allow the visiting Oilers to escape with a 19-25, 25-22, 22-25, 26-24, 17-15 road victory over the Sailors (8-7, 2-1).
Huntington Beach (16-7, 3-0) moves into sole possession of first with the victory.
“I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of matches like that in the Sunset League,” Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti said. “There are a lot of good teams and you have to come play every night. It is going to be a battle.
“One thing I think we’ve learned, just this week, having to go Edison, Los Alamitos and then Newport, back-to-back-to, it is preparing us for the playoffs. I’ll take it any way I can get them especially one the road.”
At one point in the fourth set, the Oilers led 16-7. That good feeling quickly went away as the Sailors rallied to catch the Oilers at 24-24.
“We were really good at talking to each other, we’re very positive when we’re down or up,” sophomore outside hitter Cami Sanchez said. “This victory definitely helps.”
Sanchez led the Oilers 28 kills. Russell had 11. Ashley Stevens had 26 digs and Rachel Hall had 52 assists.
“The type of team that we are, I don’t think we’re ever out of it,” Pazanti said. “You can dig balls and keep it going. I think Rachel Hall was poised and made some good setting decisions in that set that got us some one-on-one’s, especially going to Hannah Russell late.”
Despite having just one senior on the roster, the Oilers didn’t wilt when the pressure might have appeared to be too great.
“The whole perception of what we’re trying to do is to be in the moment,” Pazanti said. “Whether it is 24-0 or 25-25, we want to control what we can control. We’ve been trying to work on being a better team, not necessarily being better athletes or volleyball players. I think they picked each other tonight. Cami was kind of struggling there in the fourth game, but other people stepped up and made plays. Maddie Kaprelyan came in midway and did a great job for us.”
Remy Wilson led the Sailors with 31 kills, with Jaclyn Brown and Gabby Shelley chipped in 16 apiece. Ellie Hagadorn had 67 assists. Sammie Yeager led the way with 31 digs, with Logan Groves and Katie Duhoux chipping in with 18 and 12, respectively.
“The team that wins those close sets will probably going to win the league championship,” Newport Harbor coach Dan Glenn said. “I thought we played well tonight.
“We had opportunities. Obviously in the fourth set, we were way down, but then we had a chance because they were struggling and we let them off the hook … we made two unforced errors to end that set. In the fifth, we got stuck in one rotation that we have a little trouble in and they scored a lot of points. They made some really nice plays in the end and the setter got the ball to the middle and she made a couple of nice kills.”
The teams meet again Oct. 28 at Huntington Beach.
