Volleyball:

The score was 14-13 in the third and final game of the semifinal match in the Coastal Athletic League Girls’ Volleyball Championships for seventh-graders.

Serving for Corona del Mar was 5-foot-2 setter Paige FauntleRoy. The capacity crowd was standing as little Paige started to serve. The serve was halted as a ball from the next court rolled into play. Paige took a deep breath and served for the match.

It was a service winner and CdM moved on to play Harbor Day in the final. The CdM team celebrated as the crowd cheered wildly. The opponent, Dwyer School of Huntington Beach, was the No. 2-seeded team in the tournament.

This was such a special time in these junior high athletes’ careers, times that they remember forever.

Representing their school in an indoor athletic event for the first time, before a loud, capacity crowd with teammates that they have grown up with, creates an environment that cannot be duplicated.

This tournament started in the 1970’s in the small gym at Newport Harbor High and has progressed to the state-of-the-art Blass Gymnasium at Harbor Day School. The Coastal Athletic League played a round-robin schedule over the past two months to determine the seeds for the tournament with two teams not qualifying for the tourney.

Harbor Day Athletic Director Mike Coleman runs a top-notch tournament with everything as professional as can be, which only makes the event more memorable.

First-round play started Feb. 9 with the seventh-grade level.

Corona del Mar, coached by Linda Craig, won in two over TeWinkle, while Ensign, coached by Kari Rush, won a three-game thriller over Sowers of Huntington Beach. With the spiking of Kaitlin Bell and the all-around play of Leah Castillo, Carlee Kapana, and Sammie Yaeger, Ensign won the first game easily before losing a close second game.

Inspired by the backcourt play of Abbey Pickett, Ensign led most of the way in the deciding third game. At 12-10, setter Reily Cox came off the bench to serve the last three points of the match for an Ensign win.

The eighth-grade matches on Feb. 9 featured two-game sweeps by CdM and Ensign over Harbor Day and TeWinkle, respectively. CdM was led by the powerful play of Jules Pouch and Anastasia Colombo, as well as the setting of Irish Burns and Sabrina Roy, and backcourt play from Elizabeth Samuels and Kacie Kline.

Ensign’s Carolyn Bockroth was extremely dominant, which complemented the spiking from Hannah Tucker and Savannah Vayda, as well as the setting from Bailey Deason.

Wednesday’s semifinals featured the aforementioned CdM win over Dwyer and Harbor Day’s victory over Ensign in the seventh-grade division. The eighth-grade semifinal matches were battles with Pouch leading CdM to a win in the first game over No. 2-seeded Sowers.

Sowers regained its successful play to win the next two games and move to the final. Ensign, with Carolyn Bockrath leading the way from the front and backcourt, gave top-seeded Dwyer a tough match also.

The seventh-grade final was a classic. Two well-coached teams battling point for point with Coach Coleman’s Harbor Day team winning in two games over Coach Craig’s Corona del Mar team.

The aggressive play of Holland McKenna was critical for Harbor Day, as she created and nourished the very aggressive style for Harbor Day. The setting from Libby Knight was controlled and tactful while Maddie Abbott’s all-around play was exceptional.

CdM’s outside hitting from Katie Craig and Brynn Motal, as well as Brittany Burger and Camille Hayward in the middle, were all outstanding. Setting provided by FauntleRoy (yes, it is FauntleRoy) and Shelby Brown were also big factors in the success for the Seaweeds.

While the eighth-grade final featured Dwyer and Sowers, both from Huntington Beach, there was an intriguing player for Sowers. The setter was Whitney Hirst, whose father could not be at the final because he was coaching his last Newport Harbor boys’ basketball game of the season.

Whitney demonstrated excellent court awareness and was a major factor in Sowers’ first-game win over Dwyer. With most of Sowers’ players scheduled to attend Edison, we will see Whitney in the future, as Newport battles Edison in the Sunset League.

When I talk to players about their volleyball memories, the junior high tournament is always one that is mentioned very fondly.