Girls volleyball: Harbor upset by Irvine in five

Richard Dunn

IRVINE - The institution of rally scoring in the fifth game of

matches this season has not served Newport Harbor High well.

“Rally scoring’s a roll of the dice,” Sailors girls volleyball coach

Dan Glenn said. “A lot depends on a good start (in the fifth game).”

With Irvine’s Olivia Waldowski in the front row, the host Vaqueros

raced to a 7-2 lead in the decisive fifth game as they defeated the

Sailors, 15-8, in a Sea View League first-place showdown Tuesday night.

Irvine (8-4, 5-1 in league), the defending league champion and ranked

No. 7 in Orange County, won the first two games, 15-12, 15-6, then

Newport Harbor rallied to win games three and four, 15-7, 15-11, to force

a fifth game.

“We got a nice lead (in the fifth), and in rally scoring it’s hard to

come back. Rally scoring changes everything,” said Irvine Coach Mark

Mednick, whose team was led by Waldowski, the Nebraska-bound 6-foot-2

senior middle blocker who finished with 32 kills.

Newport Harbor (15-9, 5-1), ranked third in the county and No. 10 in

Southern California, swept Irvine in three games in the first round of

Sea View play.

“We beat them handily last time in our gym (15-13, 15-10, 15-3), so I’d say this is a big upset,” Glenn said. “But we’ve been a little

inconsistent and (the Vaqueros) won the league title last year (for the

first time since 1988). We’re just not playing very well right now, and

we’re way too close to the playoffs to not be playing well.”

Newport Harbor, which was led by junior middle blocker Kristin

McClune’s 16 kills and sophomore outside hitter Alyson Jennings’ 12

kills, fell to 1-3 this year in five-game matches decided by rally

scoring.

“We were scoring a lot of points (in the fifth game) when Olivia was

in the back row,” Glenn said. “But (rally scoring) is the (new) rule and

we knew that coming in. (The Vaqueros) flat out beat us in that fifth

game. It’s critical to get off to a good start.”

The Sailors, also led by seniors Christine Woller and Liz Lord (11

kills each), were down in the fifth game, 12-4, but then scored four

straight points, capped by Jennings’ kill that tipped the net’s white

tape and fell untouched on the Irvine side.

Shayna Garrett’s kill for the Vaqueros gave the hosts a point and the

serve, which they would never lose again, as Jennifer Gerasimov served an

ace for a 14-8 lead and Waldowski crowned the win with a big solo block

on Newport’s Jennings.

Harbor, however, came back after facing an 0-2 deficit. In the third

game, the Tars led the whole way after opening with a 4-0 edge. Irvine

pulled to within 9-7, but didn’t score again as McClune led the Sailors.

In the fourth game, it was a tough battle early, but Newport snapped a

3-3 tie and enjoyed a big run, taking a 13-4 lead following kills by

Katie King, Lord and Woller.

Irvine, which rallied from a 10-4 deficit to win the first game, came

back in the fourth game, pulling to within three (14-11), before Harbor

finally held on to force a fifth game.

“The first game was kind of weird,” Mednick said. “(The Sailors) were

playing awesome and we were just kind of hanging in there. Then we got on

a major streak. They missed a couple of serves and we got back in it.

They took their foot off the pedal.”

Mednick said his team played its best game of the season in the second

game, as Waldowski earned eight of her kills. She had a dozen in the

first game.

“They’ve got the best player in the league, and probably the county,”

Glenn said of Waldowski.

Newport Harbor plays Laguna Hills at home Thursday at 3:15 p.m., then

wraps up Sea View play Oct. 30 against Woodbridge, before concluding the

regular season with a nonleague match Nov. 2 against Back Bay rival

Corona del Mar.