Sailors downed in five

MANHATTAN BEACH — Going off in the second game was a buzzer, an unusual sound during a volleyball match. It caused Newport Harbor High’s players to stop for a moment and look around.

They couldn’t believe what just happened — play continued.

There was disbelief, also among Mira Costa’s fans with what was transpiring at home. Mira Costa needed a wake-up call, fast, with the Sailors in control.

The nation’s top-ranked program was about to suffer its first defeat and at the wrong time. The No. 1-seeded Mustangs lost control early in the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA girls’ semifinal.

Newport Harbor appeared destined to make its first section title-match appearance in four years. The first two games went the fourth-seeded Sailors’ way, so did the third until unforced errors late started to pile up and they continued, letting a golden opportunity slip away.

Mira Costa took Game 3, and the last two games, winning, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-10, to advance to a second straight section title date with Redondo Union, the last team to beat the Mustangs.

The loss came at last year’s section championship. Since then, Mira Costa has rattled off 36 wins in a row, including a Division II state crown. But Mira Costa Coach Lisa Zimmerman still remembers the five-game loss to its Bay League rival.

Newport Harbor (26-4) made sure Zimmerman won’t forget Tuesday night’s match. Coach Dan Glenn surely won’t. He called it one of the “toughest losses” he’s had to endure during his 22 years at Newport Harbor. Glenn is hoping the season isn’t over for his Sailors. Not after how they competed against Mira Costa (32-0). He said that battle deserves one of the section’s four entries into the Division II state tournament, and he’s going to fight for his team after it was wrongly given the fourth seed, instead of the No. 3 seed, after winning the Sunset League.

“I still haven’t been given a satisfactory explanation why Redondo Union, the second-place team from [its] league got a higher seed than us,” Glenn said. “I thought it wouldn’t matter because we were in control of our own destiny, but we believed if we were going to face Mira Costa it would be for the championship.”

In Newport Harbor’s second match against Mira Costa, it attacked the Mustangs’ youngest and best starter, 6-foot-4 sophomore outside hitter Falyn Fonoimoana. A different approach from the one at the Durango Tournament in Las Vegas, where Newport Harbor lost a best-of-three quarterfinal match to the eventual champ.

Fonoimoana, who committed early to USC, committed a handful of errors, something Glenn figured his team could capitalize on due to her inexperience.

“We match up well with them and we had them,” he said. “But give them credit, they were at home and they fought back.”

Fonoimoana led the charge. She ended with a match-high 21 kills and four blocks. The biggest came toward the end. Before, Newport Harbor senior outsider hitter Jamie Heenan and senior opposite Megan Munce went right at her, stuffing her with shots. Munce led the Sailors with 18 kills. Heenan started off fast, recording most of her 13 kills during the first three games.

With Heenan out of rhythm in the last two games, Munce and the rest of the Sailors, including Heenan’s younger sister, libero Kelly Heenan (22 digs), as well as senior setter Alesha Young (17 digs) and outside hitter Mary Buckingham (11 digs) were forced to hit the floor a lot.

Hitters Stevi Robinson, headed to Pepperdine, and Miami-bound senior Lane Carico got involved, combining for 25 kills.

But it was Fonoimoana’s blasts dropping the Sailors to the ground, as she finished Game 4 the same way she did the final game, hammering a shot for the win.

Even Fonoimoana fell when it was over with her teammates hovering over her.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.