Newport Harbor loses five-set battle with Marymount

LOS ANGELES — Newport Harbor took six-time state girls volleyball champion Marymount of Los Angeles to five sets, but couldn't pull off the victory Saturday night in the CIF Southern California Division I regional semifinals.

No. 2-seeded Marymount (32-4) won the match, 25-22, 21-25, 13-25, 26-24, 15-8. Marymount will travel to face top-seeded Los Alamitos on Tuesday night in the Southern California Regional Finals. 

Newport Harbor finished the season 26-10.

“I was real proud of the way we played (Saturday),” Newport Harbor coach Dan Glenn said. “We played some of our best volleyball of the year.”

Senior Cinamon Sary (29 kills, 9 digs), who is headed to USC, Tory Thompson (46 assists) and Carol Bockrath (22 digs, 8 kills) led Newport Harbor.

Newport Harbor was leading two sets to one and ahead, 15-11, in the fourth, but it couldn’t put Marymount. The net play of junior middle blocker Kaitlyn Edwards (21 kills, 10 blocks, 2 aces) and senior outside hitter Manon Greskovics-Fuller (12 kills, 25 digs) frustrated Newport Harbor.

The teams were tied in points five times late in the set, but Marymount outside hitter Lanti Moye-McLaren and Greskovics-Fuller had two crucial kills to pull out the 26-24 victory and even the sets at 2-2.

“We’re playing the CIF champion in their gym and they’re real good," Glenn said, "and I’m disappointed obviously in the fourth game, when we’re up 15-11, and we kind of let them back in and then they became aggressive and came out and won it.”

In the fifth and deciding set, with the score tied at 5-5, Marymount ran off runs of three and four points to put the set away and advance to the regional finals.

“It’s been a good four years and I’m excited for next year,” Sary said.