Volleyball column: Local tournament one to remember

Charlie Brande

The annual Newport-Mesa Intermediate School girls volleyball

tournament was held last week at Harbor Day School and the excitement of

the competition, coupled with the boisterous crowd, provided an

experience which these young athletes will remember the rest of their

lives.

The tournament was seeded based on results from five weeks of

round-robin league play.

In the eighth-grade tournament, the top seed was Harbor Day, followed

by No. 2 Ensign and No. 3 Corona del Mar. The league was very evenly

matched, as 10 of the 15 matches went three games.

The seventh-grade tournament started with Dwyer as the No. 1 seed,

followed by Harbor Day and Ensign.

Corona del Mar defeated Ensign, 12-15, 15-11, 15-12, in one of two

very exciting eighth-grade semifinals. Ensign was led by Lauren Helfrich

and Stephanie Trinen. While Ensign battled, the Sea Queens were on a

mission.

In the other semifinal, Harbor Day swept TeWinkle, setting up a final

the participants should remember for years.

After two lopsided games in which Corona del Mar won the first and

Harbor Day the second, Harbor Day jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the pivotal third game. With the leadership of Bailey Robinson, as well as

the play of Taryn Tarnutzer, Hadley Burnham and Lindsey Ensign, Harbor

Day appeared to be on its way to the championship. But CdM would not be

denied.

Coach Melissa Ford had expressed to her setter, Ashley Marks, the

importance of this match, stating they would remember the results

forever. With middle blockers Britta Nielsen and Erica Solis attacking,

as well as Brienne Ogden’s leadership and Marks’ all-around hustle,

Corona came back to win, 15-12. Jordan Anae was also responsible for many

point-scoring efforts.

Ford, a former CdM High and Princeton setter, phoned Erica Hansen, a

former Harbor Day and Princeton player who teaches school in San

Francisco, after the match to fill her in on all the championship

details. The importance of the match is special to those who have played

in it.

The Harbor Day staff includes coaches with many successful seasons

behind them. Head Coach Pam Coleman has directed Harbor Day to more

championships than any other junior high in the annual tournament.

Assistant Susan Ihrke played on former Harbor Day championship teams,

while assistant Wendy Humphries is a former All-American setter at

Stanford University.

The seventh-grade tournament was equally crowd pleasing. In one

semifinal, Ensign defeated second-seeded Harbor Day, 16-14, in the third game to advance to the title match.

Top-seeded Dwyer of Huntington Beach defeated TeWinkle in the other

semifinal.

Ensign rallied for a 9-12, 15-2, 15-12 victory in the final, with

Bryana Carey, Meghan Louvier and Courtney Hanson leading the way.

Ensign had not won the seventh-grade title since the early 1990s, when

Melissa Schutz, Sara Fairborn and Laura Osborne led the way.

This local tournament is an extremely valuable experience for all of

these players as they prepare to move into the high school ranks. It is

also one that they will always remember and cherish.