Mixed results for Oilers

There have been times that the Huntington Beach High girls’ volleyball team has been down this season.

The Oilers, however, have never been out.

La Costa Canyon knows that after Tuesday night’s first round match of the CIF State Southern California Division I regional. The Oilers went on the road and pulled an upset over the No. 2-seeded Mavericks, 17-25, 25-23, 15-25, 25-20, 17-15.

La Costa Canyon was the defending state champion.

“It would have been easy for them to pack it in, call it a match, call it a season,” Oilers Coach Craig Pazanti said about his team battling after dropping Game 1.

Similar words were spoken Saturday night at Cypress College but the mood was much different. Dos Pueblos High volleyball team didn’t take much time to test the waters against Huntington Beach.

An 11-1 start to Game 1 made sure the top-seeded Chargers would set the tempo early in the CIF Southern Section Division I-A championship match. And it didn’t get much easier for the Oilers, who suffered a 25-12, 25-10, 25-18 loss.

But now, it’s state playoffs time, and Huntington Beach plays at Newport Harbor in a Southern California Division I regional semifinal match Saturday night.

Senior outside hitter Kellie Turner had 14 kills and nine digs in the upset over La Costa Canyon. Senior middle blocker Haleigh Hampton had 12 kills and four blocks and junior outside Andrea Streips had 11 kills and 14 digs.

Junior libero Savannah Clark, whose return from a meniscus injury has helped the Oilers so much this postseason, had 26 digs and a service ace.

“We did a nice job making adjustments,” Pazanti said. “We executed in the fourth and fifth games. I think their focus was, ‘Hey, we can show what we can really do.’ ”

Against Dos Pueblos, Huntington Beach had trouble just siding out at times.

“We let them control the match,” Streips said after falling to Dos Pueblos. “We really didn’t step up and set ourselves up to control the match. When they went on those runs it was hard for us to be back in. We just needed to be more disciplined.”

Unseeded Huntington Beach, which had played so well in topping No. 3-seeded Marymount and No. 2 Santa Barbara in the quarterfinals and finals, respectively, seemed to be just outmatched against Dos Pueblos. The Chargers were also more experienced, having lost to Santa Barbara in the CIF final last year. Huntington Beach was making its first CIF final appearance since the 1996 team that won CIF and also won a state title.

Stanford-bound senior Carly Wopat had 12 kills for Dos Pueblos, leading four players with at least eight kills each. The kill leader for Huntington Beach was Turner, with five.

Midway through Game 2, the Oilers had just two kills for the match until senior Hampton banged one home. By then, though, Huntington Beach was down a game and in a 10-3 hole in the second game.

“I think we only had nine kills for the match,” Pazanti said. “If we’re not going to pass the ball, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. They took us out of our game at the service line.”

Dos Pueblos had a 10-2 lead in service aces, led by Wopat with three. She also had four blocks. Sammie Brown had nine kills and Sam Wopat and Taylor Racich had eight kills each.

“That’s why they’re as good as they are,” Pazanti said of the team ranked No. 7 in the nation in the ESPN Rise high school rankings. “They can set whoever, do whatever they want... To get here with the big crowd and not put out that effort, it’s a little disappointing. But give them credit; they did that to us. They’re a great team.”

But the Oilers, the Sea View League champions, could still leave the court at Cypress College with their heads high.

“Honestly, at least we made it here,” Hampton said. “No one expected us to make it, and we did.”

And they’re still going.

If You Go

Who: Huntington Beach (19-12) vs. Newport Harbor (33-6)

What: CIF State Volleyball Division I Playoffs, second-round match

Where: Newport Harbor High

When: 7 p.m. Saturday