Girls’ Volleyball: Sage, CdM take fifth

The Battle of the Bay girls’ volleyball rivalry match is on Thursday.

Corona del Mar High and Newport Harbor met a little earlier, squaring off in the opening playoff round of the Dave Mohs Memorial Tournament on Saturday. The Sea Kings won the first matchup between the Back Bay schools, sweeping the Sailors, 26-24, 25-21, in a best-of-three match to advance to the quarterfinals at Edison High.

Sea Kings Coach Steve Astor said his team and Newport Harbor’s side competed with key players out because of ACT testing in the morning. Two of CdM’s players wrapped up their tests in time to make the afternoon’s quarterfinal match against Corona Santiago.

At full strength, with Samantha Jones and Paige Fauntleroy back, CdM in the opening set challenged Santiago, a CIF Southern Section Division 2AA champion and CIF State Division II finalist last year. A year ago, Santiago only dropped four sets, three coming in the CIF State Division II final loss to San Jose Archbishop Mitty.

Santiago avoided losing a set to CdM, recording a 26-24, 25-19 sweep. The Sea Kings (6-1) wound up tied for fifth in the tournament for the second straight year under Astor.

“I’m happy,” Astor said of his team’s performance, which also included a 25-15, 22-25, 15-8 win against Mater Dei, helping CdM go 3-0 in pool-play action and 4-1 overall. “Going into a tournament like this our objective is to get better.”

Astor was also pleased to have Katie Craig during the first two days of the tournament. He said Craig missed Dave Mohs last season because of a concussion.

Craig, a senior outside hitter, led the way for CdM in its three matches on Saturday, totaling 29 kills. She produced 14 kills against Mater Dei, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1AA preseason poll. Sydney Alacano contributed 10 kills against the Monarchs.

The result set up a match with the Sailors, and Craig and Natalia Bruening helped CdM eliminate Newport Harbor by finishing with nine and eight kills, respectively.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Astor said of facing the Sailors before playing host to them in the Battle of the Bay on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. “Both teams played really hard. [Sailors Coach] Dan [Glenn] and I will make the necessary adjustments [for Thursday’s match].”

Glenn had a little fun with seeing the Sea Kings before Thursday.

“I would have liked to have seen them in the [Dave Mohs] final,” said Glenn, adding that Ellie Hagadorn, Jaclyn Brown, Logan Grove, Kate Hefner, Sammie Yeager, Katie Duhoux, Kaitlynn Bell and Remy Wilson played well during the tournament in which the Sailors went 3-2 and placed ninth.

“I know my kids were fired up to play them.”

While Newport Harbor and CdM are in action next week, the third school in Newport Beach will take the week off. Sage Hill deserved it.

Sage Hill shared fifth place with CdM at Dave Mohs, its best finish in the top division. Sage Hill lost to tournament favorite Lakewood in the quarterfinals at Huntington Beach High.

Lakewood, ranked No. 6 in Division 1AA, swept the Lightning, 25-12, 25-21. The setback was Sage Hill’s only one in five matches during the tournament. That’s impressive considering the team played without middle blocker Sophia Mossman (shoulder).

Sage Hill played a robust schedule on Saturday, topping No. 4 Orange Lutheran, 25-19, 25-21, in pool-play action, and San Clemente, 25-15, 25-19, in the opening round of the playoffs. Senior outside hitter Halland McKenna finished with 38 kills on Saturday, and Kekai Whitford collected 20 kills and 21 digs, while Maddy Abbott amassed 55 assists.

Eight matches into the season, Sage Hill, which won the Division 3A title last year, has gone up against some of the best Division 1AA programs, which includes last week’s sweep of Mater Dei. Sage Hill heads into its Academy League opener at Oxford Academy on Sept. 23 with a 5-3 overall record.

“I’m really proud of the girls,” said Lightning Coach Dan Thomassen, whose team had finished ninth at Dave Mohs in each of the past two seasons. “We’ve already played three [Lakewood, Santa Margarita and Mater Dei] of the four teams that made it to the semifinals at Dave Mohs. We know what we need to work on to go play our best volleyball.”