Girls volleyball: Sailors sweep Irvine

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - One thing is for sure about the Newport Harbor High

girls volleyball team; panic is not in the Sailors’ vocabulary.

Despite falling behind in each game, the No. 1 ranked Sailors (by the

Orange County Sportswriters Poll) put away the visiting No. 7 Vaqueros

Tuesday, 15-13, 16-14, 15-13, in both teams’ Sea View League opener.

“I wasn’t happy that we fell behind in all of our games, but I’m very

the way we bounced back and kept our composure,” Sailors Coach Dan Glenn

said. “Maybe a little panic at the beginning might keep them from falling

behind early.”

For the Sailors (14-1, 1-0), it’s been a long week, following the Nike

Challenge Tournament in Chicago, where they lost in the championship game

to Kentucky’s Assumption High, 5-15, 15-4, 15-10, for their first loss of

the season.

“It was nice to see us rebound from that tough loss,” Glenn said.

“We’re a little tired and it wasn’t easy going up against one of the best

teams in our league to start. We had a little trouble with them last

year, coming off a tournament.”

April Ross had 14 kills, Brenda Waterman added six kills and seven

digs and Katie King had 19 assists for the Sailors.

“I managed to substitute everyone in and for the most part, I was very

happy with everyone’s play,” Glenn said.

Newport jumped out early, 7-3, in game one, before Irvine (4-2, 0-1),

led by Jody Carlson’s three straight kills, ripped off six consecutive

points to take a 9-7 lead.

The Vaqueros maintained a two-point lead, 12-10, before Newport made

its charge.

Ross, Lisa Addeo and Jennifer Schutz came up with big plays down the

stretch and game one went to the Sailors, 15-13.

Irvine dominated the majority of game two, jumping out to a 14-5 lead

and actually had side out on five opportunities to put away the game.

That’s when Newport turned it up a notch and proceeded to score the

next 11 points.

Addeo led the charge with four crucial kills, including the

game-winner, 16-14.

“Lisa really did a great job for us in that second game,” Glenn said.

“She really put the ball away for us when we needed it.”

Irvine showed why they are a Top-10 club by hanging tough and jumping

out to leads of 8-4 and 11-7 in game three, before Newport responded

again.

Waterman came through with two crucial kills and Newport took

advantage of missed Irvine kill opportunities to regain the lead, 14-13,

before Ross ended the contest with a cross-court kill.

“It should really be a great match-up when we go to their place (Oct.

21),” Glenn said.

Before their rematch with Irvine, the Sailors will be plenty busy,

with Laguna Hills coming to town Thursday at 3:15 p.m. and Santa

Margarita on Friday at 6:15.

Despite the win, Glenn knows there’s still some work to be done on the

road to titles and championships.

“We still need to tinker with a few things,” Glenn said. “We’re still

working on our setting, but that’s just one phase of the game. Our

setting gets better with better passes and so on.”