NORWALK – The Redondo girls volleyball team proved to be too much for Mater Dei in Saturday’s CIF-SS Division 1AA final.
After the Monarchs tied the match at 1-1, the Sea Hawks relied on their balanced attack to lead the way to the 25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20 victory at Cerritos College.
The triumph gives Redondo its first CIF title since 2006. The Monarchs are still searching for their CIF title since 2003.
“I said one key was to win the pass-serve battle,” Mater Dei coach Dan O’Dell said. “I think both teams have tendencies where are passing can go cold. So I knew serving was going to be important. I thought they out-passed us.”
Redondo had 10 aces, compared to four.
“They won the serve and pass battle pretty clearly and that’s what determined the match,” O’Dell said.
The teams met early in the season in a nonleague match with Redondo winning in four sets.
The teams were the runners-up in the previous two CIF-SS Division 1AA championships. Mater Dei lost in last year’s final to Los Alamitos and Redondo lost to Marymount of Los Angeles in 2012.
In the fourth, Mater Dei was forced into survival mode and managed to stay close, cutting Redondo’s lead to 13-12. However, the Sea Hawks scored four consecutive points to take control of the set.
Mater Dei got as close as 23-20 on a kill from Alyse Ford, but Redondo scored the final two points to close out the match.
Ford led the Monarchs with 25 kills. Shannon Scully had 16.
Yasmin Bedart-Ghani led Redondo with 22 kills. Abril Bustamante and Megan Rice had 15 and 14, respectively.
“That’s why you have to win the serve-pass battle because they have plenty of girls that can go and put balls away,” O’Dell said.
Bedart-Ghani only had one error on 41 swings. She hit .512.
“She was unbelievable,” Redondo coach Tommy Chaffins said. “We have an extremely competitive group. It has been a fun group to coach. They’re feisty. If somebody punches them athletically, they find ways to come back and I’m proud of them.”
Mater Dei led 13-8 in the third set, but couldn’t get rid of Redondo. With the score 19-18, the Sea Hawks scored four consecutive points and eventually closed the set on a kill from Bedart-Ghani for a 2-1 lead in the match.
Late in the second set, the Monarchs snapped an 18-18 tie with five consecutive points.
Redondo made things interesting, thanks to a strong serving run from Megan Rice that helped cut the score to 24-23. The Monarchs escaped thanks to a hitting error from Redondo to tie the match at 1-1.
The Monarchs rallied from a 22-20 deficit in the first set to take the lead 23-22 on a kill from Scully. However, the Sea Hawks closed out the first set with kills from Bedart-Ghani and Kristen Hamlin.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
