SANTA ANA – It was an emotional night all around for the Mater Dei girls volleyball team.
It was senior night for 11 players on the team’s roster, and the match took the team through a wide range of emotions. It finally ended in jubilation for the fourth-ranked Monarchs as Alyse Ford connected on her 32nd kill to seal the victory, 21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-13, over No.3 Santa Margarita in a Trinity League match Wednesday night at Mater Dei.
“I didn’t think we played our best volleyball,” Mater Dei coach Dan O’Dell said. “I thought Santa Margarita did a really good job of taking advantage of our weaknesses and really exploiting us in certain spots.
“There are a lot of areas we need to work on, and we will watch some film and get better at them, but winning the emotional roller coaster and coming out of here with a 15-13 win (in the fifth set) is great.”
Payton Chang added nine kills for Monarchs, with Brittany Welsh chipping in seven and Shannon Scully with six.
This was the fourth match of the season between the teams. The Eagles (27-5, 4-1) won the previous league match, on Oct.7 in five sets, and Mater Dei has won the two matches matches in tournaments (Dave Mohs and California Challenge), although one was forfeited.
After staying alive in the third set, the Monarchs (21-10, 5-1) looked to Ford in the fourth. The senior had nine kills in the set, including the final four points for the Monarchs to tie the match.
In the fifth, Santa Margarita led, 8-6, but Mater Dei rallied to tie the set at 12-12 and eventually ended the night on Ford’s kill.
Meghan McClure led the Eagles with 23 kills. Claire Archibald had 20 kills and 11 digs. McClure had 14 digs. Devon Chang had 57 assists.
The Monarchs have two league matches remaining. The Eagles have three. A coin flip will determine the first-place representative from the Trinity League if the teams finish tied for the first.
“I think the three sets that we lost, we made the unforced errors,” Santa Margarita coach Katy Daly said. “We got ahead and then shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t play confidently. I don’t want to say it, but we looked young.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
