Newport Harbor sweeps to victory
NEWPORT BEACH - The Newport Harbor girls volleyball team received a nice surprise earlier in the week when Huntington Beach upset No. 2 La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad.
It meant the Sailors got to stay home and avoid a road trip south Saturday night. Of course, it also meant third-seeded Newport Harbor had to deal with 6-foot-7 middle blocker Haleigh Hampton and the rest of the Huntington Beach spoilers, who have played the underdog role to perfection this postseason.
Hampton finished with 11 kills and six blocks, but it wasn't enough to disrupt the Sailors, who were more than up to the task and swept past the visiting Oilers, 25-16, 25-19, 25-15, in the Division I quarterfinals of the CIF State Volleyball Championships at Newport Harbor High.
CIF-SS Division I-AA champion Newport Harbor (31-6) faces top-seeded Dos Pueblos of Goleta in Tuesday's semifinals. Huntington Beach, which finished as runner-up in the Division I-A final, finishes the season 19-13.
Newport Harbor lost to Dos Pueblos in three games at the Santa Barbara tournament on Oct. 31, and will be the visitor based on host priority.
"I thought we did a nice job tonight of playing steady," Newport Harbor coach Dan Glenn said. "Huntington Beach had a lot of momentum coming in."
Newport Harbor entered with its own momentum, having not lost in the month of November, and started quickly Saturday. The Sailors led 6-0 in Game 1, forcing the Oilers to take an early timeout and settle down.
Huntington Beach worked its way back, closing to 17-15. However, Newport Harbor put together one of its runs and pulled away, ending the game on an 8-1 spurt.
Game 2 played out in similar fashion. The Sailors built an 8-2 lead before the Oilers fought back to 10-9. Yet a 9-2 run from Newport Harbor pushed the spread to 19-11.
"I actually thought we played well tonight," Oilers coach Craig Pazanti said. "We were able to hang with them defensively. Newport Harbor is good. They don't make many mistakes."
Cinnamon Sary finished with 41 assists and middle blocker Katey Thompson had a team-high 14 kills for Newport Harbor. Kirby Burnham ended with 12 kills and Maddy Brown and Alex Holbrook combined for 16 kills.
Thompson and Hampton never squared off at the net, with Huntington Beach instead opting to match their middle with the smaller Holbrook. As a result, both Thompson and Hampton flourished when at the net.
"It put them in the best position," Glenn said. "But we had Katey the other way and we scored a lot of points. We knew we both were going to score points with our bigs."
As much as the marquee middles shined, it was the contributions of the sophomore Holbrook that played as big a role as anyone in the match, Pazanti said.
"I thought we did a really good job on Kirby tonight," said Pazanti of the Sailors outside hitter. "Holbrook played great for them. I don't want to say she won the match for them, but she really stepped up."
In Division II play:
Corona del Mar 3, Elsinore 0: Corona del Mar swept Elsinore, the Division II-A champ, on Saturday, 25-19, 25-17, 25-22, in the quarterfinals. CdM was led by Amanda Nickel and Morgan Boukather, who each had 10 kills. Madison Smith dished out 38 assists and had 7 digs.
The Sea Kings will face Redlands East Valley of Redlands in Tuesday's semifinals. The teams met last Saturday in the CIF-SS Division II-AA final, where REV won in four games.
