Sailors slide past Highland
Barry Faulkner
The slogan on the T-shirts worn by the Highland High girls
volleyball team read “Beyond Limits.” That’s about where the
Bakersfield-based Scots found themselves Tuesday night in the first
round of the Southern California Division II regionals of the CIF
State Championships at Newport Harbor High.
The top-seeded hosts (27-6), fresh off four straight sweeps en
route to the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA title, needed barely
more than an hour to earn a 15-4, 15-6, 15-11 triumph over the
Central Section runner-up. The win puts the Sailors into Saturday’s
regional semifinal at Newport Harbor. Coach Dan Glenn’s Tars, seeking
the program’s fifth state crown, will host either San Pasqual or
South Torrance for the right to go to the Dec. 3 regional final.
“That’s why they’re (seeded) No. 1,” Highland Coach Dale Baker
said after the Sailors’ fifth straight postseason sweep. “They’re so
outstanding, it’s hard to do anything against them. And who is a
better coach than Dan Glenn? I don’t know of one.”
Though Highland (16-11) started a 6-foot-1 setter, a 6-0 middle
blocker and a standout 6-0 outside hitter, Newport Harbor dominated
at the net.
Kristin McClune, the Tars’ 6-3 Pepperdine-bound senior middle
blocker, piled up a match-high 18 kills. A handful of those came on
the back slide, in which the middle hitter starts for the middle,
redirects to the right side and hammers a back set, usually before
blockers can get into position to challenge.
“They use (the back slide) better than anyone we play,” Baker
said. “(McClune) is quite a player.”
Glenn said the back slide, which produced eight of Newport’s 43
kills, was a strategic ploy to avoid Highland’s tall blockers.
“They have a big right-side block and a big middle blocker and our
outside hitters aren’t so big,” Glenn said. “Kelly (King, who amassed
29 assists for the winners), did a nice job of going to the back
slide. It was effective for us tonight.”
The Sailors’ serving also bothered the visitors, as the hosts
rolled up six aces, five service winners and several free-ball
opportunities created by poor passes.
“They serve as tough as anyone we’ve played all year,” Baker said.
Glenn also acknowledged his team’s advantage from the service
line, including booming jump serves from junior Alyson Jennings (two
aces and two winners).
“We served tough,” Glenn said. “Serving was how I thought we won
the match Saturday.”
Junior Lauren Miller added two aces, while King and McClune had
one ace apiece. Emily Turner had two service winners and McClune
added one to help keep the visitors in check.
Jennings had eight kills, one stuff block and six assists to round
out an impressive performance.
“She really came to play,” Glenn said of his 5-7 opposite.
Turner chipped in five kills and 5-11 senior middle Shelley
Langford added four off the bench. Christina Fulce added three kills,
while Miller and Elizabeth Clayton had two apiece for the Tars. Kiley
Hall rounded out the Harbor attack with one kill.
Kara McKeehan, a 6-0 junior outside hitter, led the Scots with 12
of their 16 kills. McKeehan, a left-hander, received most of 6-1
sophomore Sonya Slegers’ sets, even when she was in the back row.
Newport scored the first eight points of the match and ended the
13-minute first game with a 6-0 run.
Highland cut a 3-0 second-game deficit to 3-2, but Harbor exploded
to produce a 10-2 edge and wound up claiming the game in 19 minutes.
Highland, however, appeared to gain some confidence in the third
game, as it took a 3-1 lead then turned a 9-6 deficit into a 9-9 tie.
But a McClune kill for a sideout stopped the Scots’ momentum and
Langford put away an assist by Fulce to put the Sailors back in front
for good, 10-9.
A service winner on a Jennings jumper wrapped things up on the
fourth match point.
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