PREP NOTES

Laura Kennedy wasn’t sure what kind of team she had inherited when she took over the Mater Dei girls’ volleyball program this fall.

Kennedy, a former Monarch player who had spent the past four years as Pepperdine’s setter, got a team that finished third in the Angelus League last year and was considered average in a sport dominated by South County schools.

“I was completely out of touch with the high school level for four years,” she said. “I had no idea if we were good or not. People would ask me, but I couldn’t tell them because I had no idea how any of the other teams looked. Everyone would laugh, thinking I was naive.”

No one’s laughing now.

The Monarchs, a power in the early 1980s, started this season unranked in the county, state and Southern Section preseason polls.

But a month into the season, the Monarchs are 9-3 and ranked No. 1 in the county, second in the Southern Section 5-A and 13th in the state.

Seven of Mater Dei’s victories have come against traditional powers.

The Monarchs have beaten Marina, Ocean View, Irvine, Fountain Valley, Santa Margarita, defending state-champion Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, previously ranked fifth in the county, and Capistrano Valley, previously ranked second in the county.

“I liked us being an unknown team,” Kennedy said, “coming in and starting to beat people.”

That’s not the case anymore. Coaches around the county are aware of the Monarchs, who are led by outside hitter Amy Moeller, a 6-foot senior averaging 19 kills a match. Moeller, who gave up a promising softball career to concentrate on volleyball, has been contacted by several college programs, including USC and California.