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Girls’ Volleyball: Sailors dig in, rally past Los Al

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LOS ALAMITOS — Volleyball coaches can turn to the lexicon of the sport for advice whenever their teams fall behind two games to none.

“Keep digging.”

The two-word encouragement that comes with a double meaning, served Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball coach Dan Glenn well on Wednesday, when the visiting Sailors rallied for a 16-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-20, 15-10 victory over Los Alamitos in the Sunset League opener for both schools.

Newport Harbor (5-4) did not earn a lead until the third set and trailed in four of the five sets against the reigning CIF Southern Section Division 1AA champion Griffins.

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After trailing, 8-0, in the second set, the Tars came back to knot the score at 22 and 23, before the hosts (11-10) eventually won to create the opportunity for a sweep.

The Sailors, however, turned up their defensive intensity to overcome a 9-6 deficit in the third set, and led throughout the fourth set.

In the fifth set, Newport Harbor broke a 5-5 tie, upped its lead to 9-6 and 10-7, then pulled away for what Glenn called the team’s biggest win of the year.

“It’s our biggest match; the opening of league,” Glenn said. “It’s the start of a new season. We’ve had some wins, but not that many against quality opponents. In Hawaii [at a preseason tournament], we lost a bunch of matches. We played pretty well, but we lost. My biggest concern there was that my girls would learn how to fight through and win those battles. We were able to do that tonight.”

It was the first five-set victory of the season for the Sailors, who were led offensively by 6-foot junior Remy Wilson, who had a match-high 20 kills. Wilson also chipped in eight digs, but she was topped by a handful of teammates in that department.

Senior libero Sammie Yeager amassed 22 digs, while junior setter Ellie Hagadorn had 19, senior outside hitter Kaitlyn Bell had 16, senior outside hitter Logan Grove contributed 13 and junior Kate Hefner had 11.

Grove and junior outside hitter Jaclyn Brown had 11 kills apiece for the winners, for whom Hagadorn had 42 assists.

While it took some time for the Sailors defense to dig in, their offense also started slowly. The Sailors first kill of the match brought them within 11-10 and they spotted the Griffins the first eight points of the second set.

“I actually don’t think we played that badly in spurts, but we got so far behind,” said Glenn, whose team leaves for the Asics Challenge in Chicago on Thursday morning. “We spotted [the Griffins] a lot of points, but I thought if we could turn it into a rally match, we could win the rallies. And, in the fourth and fifth sets especially, we were able to do that.”

Glenn said the exhaustive match could be the first of many in the rugged Sunset League.

“I think when the top four teams in the league play each other, it’s going to be like that the whole time,” Glenn said. “So, that’s a great one to get, because it’s the opener and it’s at Los Al. I expect the same battle when we play [Los Al] at Newport. And its going to be that way against Huntington Beach and Edison.

“You have to sneak in a couple of those kinds of wins, though, when you are down, 0-2, in somebody else’s gym. Fortunately, we hung in there in the third set and then in the fourth and fifth sets, we started digging some balls. I just thought we really picked up our effort, defensively, and it was really good to see.”

Glenn, whose team will be at the airport at 6:15 a.m. on Thursday, said Wednesday’s come-from-behind win will enhance the disposition of the entire traveling party.

“It makes the trip to Chicago a lot easier,” Glenn said.

Junior Hannah Wehring led the Griffins with 17 kills, while senior Brittany Tuilau had 11.

Junior setter Julia Patterson and senior middle blocker Sydney Beyma both had six kills and four block assists for the hosts.

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