Tars fall in four

Barry Faulkner

Newport Harbor High girls volleyball coach Dan Glenn said his

top-seeded team had visiting Liberty High right where it wanted it in

the fourth game of Tuesday’s CIF Division II Southern California

Regional final.

But, it was what the Bakersfield-based Patriots didn’t want that

helped propel them to a 15-4, 16-14, 13-15, 15-12 victory.

“We didn’t want to go to a fifth game,” said Liberty Coach Lean

Slayton, after her No. 3-seeded squad rallied from a 9-4 fourth-game

deficit to eliminate the Sailors one step shy of the state title

match.

“I told our girls during that fourth game to just drop their hips,

stay low to the floor and play volleyball, because (the Patriots)

were getting tired,” Glenn said. “But we made some unforced errors,

lost the momentum and let it slip away from us. We lost the second

and fourth games after being ahead in both.”

Liberty (31-4) seized command in the first game and closed it out

in just 16 minutes. The Central Section champions then built a 4-1

lead in the second game, before Newport Harbor (28-7) turned things

on.

Consecutive kills by 6-foot-3 senior middle blocker Kristin

McClune, junior opposite Alyson Jennings and McClune again helped

turn a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 Newport lead. The Sailors scored four

straight points to take a 12-8 lead, but Liberty answered with six

straight. After Elizabeth Clayton’s back-row kill drew the hosts even

at 14, Liberty scored twice to retain the momentum and disappoint a

robust home crowd that, along with hundreds of fans who made the

drive from Bakersfield, spilled into the balcony, nearly filling the

facility to capacity.

Hardly disheartened, Harbor rallied from third-game deficits of

9-4 and 12-9, as McClune and the 5-8 Jennings hammered away against

sizable Liberty blockers to extend the match to a fourth game.

McClune, bound for Pepperdine, finished with a match-high 28 kills

and had four of the Sailors’ seven stuff blocks. Jennings collected

14 kills, countless digs, one block and one ace serve.

With 5-10 junior outside hitter Lauren Miller pounding Kellie King

sets outside in the fourth game -- earning four of her 19 kills to

help the Tars forge a 9-4 advantage -- Harbor, with its pumped-up

crowd roaring, appeared destined for its second straight five-gamer.

But a combination of Liberty kills by Loyola Marymount-bound Jania

Motton and Cal State Bakersfield-bound Jodi Hardin, as well as two

costly Harbor passing errors, helped the visitors pull even at 10-10.

A McClune kill for a sideout and a Patriot hitting error put the

Sailors up, 11-10, but they never led again and a Harden ace for

match point triggered a wild celebration from the visitors and a

tearful team hug by the Sailors.

“We had a bad start, but the kids didn’t panic,” Glenn said.

“(McClune and Jennings) played great and I thought (Clayton, with

five kills and one stuff block) did an awesome job of sparking us off

the bench. It was a great high school match that was very fun to

watch. I told our kids after that second game, ‘Let’s get the crowd

to stick around a while, because we hadn’t had one like it all year.’

We did a good job of coming back and we had a lot of momentum. But

you can’t make the kind of unforced errors we did and expect to beat

a team like that. Hopefully, our younger kids can learn from this.”

Hardin, a 5-11 outside hitter, finished with 27 kills, two blocks

and one ace, while Matton, a 6-0 middle, collected 18 kills and five

stuff blocks. The duo combined for 62 kills in a five-game road upset

of No. 2 Mater Dei Saturday.

King had 63 assists for the Sailors, who also received six kills

from senior middle Shelley Langford and three kills from junior

outside hitter Emily Turner.

“(The Sailors) fought to the end, just like I expected,” said

Slayton, whose Patriots were eliminated in the first round by Newport

in four games last season. This is Liberty’s third varsity season,

its first with a senior class.