Sailors against big odds in Sunset after loss

ANAHEIM — The Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball team traveled to Esperanza in search of a defining road victory in the Sunset League and the prime position for a league title that would come with it.

Instead the Sailors left with a valuable lesson: playing from behind in an opponent’s gym is an extremely difficult proposition.

Add into the mix that the opponent was the defending CIF Southern Section Division I-AA Aztecs and the gym was full of championship banners, complete with a lengthy girls’ volleyball hall of fame on the wall, an indication that very few had left that building with a victory.

The Sailors (15-4, 5-2 in league) would not be the first to crack the Aztecs’ undefeated record at home, with costly errors leading to a 25-17, 11-25, 25-23, 25-20 loss Tuesday.

The setback was the No. 7-ranked Sailors’ third in four matches, which came on the heels of a 10-match winning streak. The three losses were to some of the best teams in the state, Archbishop Mitty of San Jose, on the road to Los Alamitos, the defending Division I state champion, and now Esperanza, which is ranked No. 6.

Fourteen of Esperanza’s points came courtesy of errant serves by the Sailors, with seven service errors coming in the crucial third game with the match knotted at 1-1.

“We let that one slip away,” Sailors Coach Dan Glenn said. “We made so many unforced errors. And our service errors came at crucial times. You can’t do that in someone else’s gym.”

A second victory over Esperanza would have presented a clear path to a league title. With the loss, the Sailors still have a chance, but need help from the Aztecs in defeating Los Alamitos again, before the Sailors face the Griffins in the final match of the season.

“That would have put us in a great spot to win a league title,” Glenn said. “Our backs are against the wall. We’re fighting for a spot. We still control a little bit of what we can do. Just not too much.”

Tuesday’s match was a far cry from the teams’ meeting two weeks ago in Newport Beach. In that match, the Aztecs held five point leads halfway through the second and third games only to watch the Sailors storm back for the sweep.

Newport would mount comebacks in the second meeting, but errors unhinged the attempts before completion.

“A sign of a good team is how you play when you’re behind,” Glenn said. “We play an aggressive offense and when you play an aggressive offense there will be errors. But there’s a time to make errors. We made errors at the wrong time.”

The Sailors rallied in the first game to tie the game, 12-12, but three straight errors gave the Aztecs a three-point lead and Newport would not come any closer.

The third game would be the most painful for the Sailors. Down by 10 points early, Newport Harbor pushed itself back into the game. Trailing 24-21, the Sailors scored a point off a block then another came after setter Alesha Young made two diving one-armed digs and Katie Regan added a diving dig of her own to keep the rally alive and force an error from Esperanza. Facing game-point with a chance to tie, the serve dipped short and the Sailors trailed 2-1.

The second game was vintage Newport Harbor, the offense was clean and smooth. No matter where the hits came, the Sailors kept the ball up. Setter Alesha Young accurately placed sets across the net and the hitters delivered with powerful kills. And Esperanza wilted under the offensive pressure.

Down 4-2, the Sailors went on a 17-2 run to stun the crowd.

Megan Munce had 10 kills, Katie Wells and Megan Toman had eight, Jamie Heenan had six and Mary Buckingham and Young had five. Young also added 35 assists and 15 digs.