Sailors turned away in Dave Mohs semis

HUNTINGTON BEACH — With his Newport Harbor High team gone, Coach Dan Glenn stuck around to watch more girls’ volleyball.

Another semifinal match was underway at the Dave Mohs Memorial Tournament Saturday.

Before the third and decisive game against Santa Barbara, Orange Lutheran Coach Mark Laulhere walked over to Glenn.

“Did you guys win?” Laulhere said.

“No,” Glenn said.

But Glenn stayed around to pull for Orange Lutheran.

If the Lancers won, it ensured an Orange County team played for the tournament’s Division I championship at Huntington Beach High Monday.

Newport Harbor fell short in its semifinal, as Dos Pueblos of Goleta upset the top-seeded Sailors, 25-18, 25-23.

For a moment, it looked as though the tournament’s headline title match would feature two Santa Barbara-area programs and not in Huntington Beach.

Dos Pueblos against Santa Barbara sounded good to Dos Pueblos Coach Dwayne Hauschild.

Soon, assistant coach Tina Brown found tournament director Trent Jackson and talked to him about moving the location of the championship up Highway 101.

If Santa Barbara beat Orange Lutheran, Jackson said he was OK with Dos Pueblos playing Santa Barbara for the championship in Santa Barbara.

“That’s what we were hoping for,” said Hauschild, as he rooted for rival Santa Barbara against Orange Lutheran. “If that actually happened, then maybe we don’t have to drive two and a half hours on the 405.”

The Chargers (8-1) are going to have to make that 284-mile round trip again.

Orange Lutheran rallied to beat Santa Barbara, 20-25, 25-22, 15-10, keeping the Division I title match in Huntington Beach.

The Chargers had already checked out of their Costa Mesa hotel. They’ll come back for a one-day visit this time.

Don’t be surprised if Glenn returns Monday night to watch. He would rather have his team in the final, and so would’ve Corona del Mar Coach Darryl Gan, whose team fell out of contention after losing to Santa Barbara, 25-13, 25-19, in the quarterfinals.

CdM (6-2) fought its way to the quarterfinals by coming from behind to beat rival Laguna Beach, 25-9, 22-25, 16-14.

The Breakers had match point at 14-9, but then Jenny Martin served. She never gave up the ball.

Martin served seven straight times, dropping two service aces to lead the Sea Kings to a dramatic victory.

“I was happy how we played,” said Gan, whose team went 4-1 during the first two days of the three-day tournament. “Hopefully we can build on this.”

Newport Harbor (6-1) looks to do the same.

After going 3-0 in pool play and 1-0 in bracket play, Newport Harbor was challenged.

The Sailors played back-to-back three-game matches. In each one they dropped the opening game, before beating Woodbridge, 24-26, 25-17, 15-11, and Carlsbad, 20-25, 25-21, 15-13.

Fatigue set in for Newport Harbor, ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA preseason coaches’ poll.

When Newport Harbor met Dos Pueblos, it was the fourth and last match of the day for both programs.

The Chargers, No. 2 in Division I-A, still played as the underdog. The role helped because they came out loose, jumping out to an 8-2 lead.

“That helped them a lot,” said Hauschild of his young players getting a comfortable lead. “When we get into a situation, where maybe we’re just a little bit behind, it’s a little more intense.”

Dos Pueblos features only one senior in Caitlin Racich. She’s an explosive outside hitter headed for Pepperdine.

Racich recorded two aces, and also hammered shots past Newport Harbor’s strong middle blockers, Katey Thompson, Jennifer Palmquist and Alice Cope.

“We learned what we need to work on,” said Thompson, a 6-foot-1 junior. “For me, it would be my blocking. And then just [team-wise] is like [our] fight, we need to work a little more on that. I think we get kind of get down on ourselves a little bit.

“We’re kind of inconsistent [with] our enthusiasm.”

Newport Harbor raised it in Game 2.

Keeping it close was setter Arielle Lysacek and outside hitter Kirby Burnham, who had two kills each early on. But Racich led Dos Pueblos on an 11-5 run. Glenn called a timeout as the Chargers went ahead, 19-12.

“We just couldn’t make the key, key play to kind of get us over the hump,” Glenn said. “They were playing the whole match with the lead.”

The Sailors rallied. Lysacek set the offense, delivering passes to Burnham, Mary Buckingham and Maddy Brown. The three finished with five kills each in the match.

Thompson recorded two aces. Katie Lawler’s ace cut the deficit, 24-23.

Then the Sailors reverted to unforced errors. The next serve went long to give the Chargers the victory.

“We’re going to have to [clean up the unforced errors] because [Sunset League foe] Los Alamitos is playing really well,” Glenn said. “They’re playing in Las Vegas [at the Durango Fall Classic] this weekend. They’re playing as good as anybody and that’s who we open league with right when we come back from [the Nike Challenge in] Chicago [Oct. 3-4].

“I don’t think we hurt ourselves that bad here. If we would’ve lost one of the earlier matches to Woodbridge or something, which we easily could’ve, that would’ve hurt us. We still got a couple of tough [matches]. We play Huntington [Beach] and Laguna [Beach] before we go [to Chicago].”

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