Sage Hill still perfect at home in ’04 season

Chris Yemma

NEWPORT COAST -- For the Sage Hill School girls volleyball team, it’s

not how many lives a cat has, it’s how many kills.

Standing 6-foot, Lightning outside hitter and co-captain Cat

Dailey had a match-high 16 kills as she led her team to a 25-8,

25-13, 28-26 sweep of visiting Junipero Serra Friday.

Dailey also led her team with four aces, one that she nailed near

the end of the third game to help keep it a three-game match. But for

Dailey, it was just daily routine.

“We always get this type of performance out of her,” Sage Coach

Dan Thomassen said. “This is what we have gotten used to.”

With the Lightning trailing in the third game, 22-19, and their

hopes of making it a quick day on the verge of collapsing, Dailey

aced her serve, fired a kill and tipped over a floater to tie the

score at 22. Sage then proceeded to close it out.

“I took a chance near the end and it worked out,” Dailey said. “We

came out strong, had a lapse in the middle, but I definitely did not

want a fourth game.”

Other co-captain Vista Murphy also produced at a high level for

the Lightning. Her eight kills were second-best for the hosts and she

matched Dailey’s ace total at four. And just before Dailey took

charge at the end of the third game, Thomassen made a quick

substitution and put Murphy back in to have his two captains in

command.

“When we take Vista out of the game, it’s a big loss,” Thomassen

said.

With no one above the sophomore level, Serra is a young team, and

following a questionable call by the referee in the second game,

Lions’ coach Troy Tanner let the frustration of his youthful squad’s

performance get the best of him.

After the ball was ruled out of bounds in favor of Sage, Tanner

exchanged words with the referee and received a yellow card. In the

final game, he received another yellow card and might have come close

to being ejected after telling the referee to give himself a yellow

card.

But the off-the-court occurrences did not diminish the Lightning’s

drive and desire to keep this year’s home winning streak alive.

“We didn’t know what to expect, having not played them before,”

Thomassen said. “But we’ve never lost at home (4-0) and that was one

of our main goals entering the match.”