Huntington Beach girls’ volleyball sweeps Otay Ranch in regional playoff opener

It had been more than a month since the Huntington Beach girls’ volleyball team had played a match on its home court, but with the end of that stretch has come the beginning of a new season.

The Oilers took step one in what they hope will be a deep regional playoff run, as Huntington Beach swept visiting Chula Vista Otay Ranch 25-21, 25-22, 25-17 on Tuesday in a CIF State Southern California Regional Division I opener.

As the lowest seed in its pool in the Southern Section Division 1 playoffs, Huntington Beach had to travel to take on the likes of Los Angeles Marymount, Chatsworth Sierra Canyon and Newport Harbor, dropping each contest.

Stout competition, to be sure, but Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti and junior outside hitter Haylee LaFontaine both said they saw a team that was not finished when it had little more to play for than pride in a 20-25, 25-17, 25-20, 23-25, 15-12 defeat against the Sailors.

“After we had lost the first two [playoff matches] and we played Newport, … we weren’t going to advance, but we were going to hold ourselves accountable,” LaFontaine said. “We knew that we had to still go out and try our hardest.”

LaFontaine gave No. 3-seeded Huntington Beach (27-7) a spark right out of the gate, delivering four service aces on her first rotation at the service line. The Oilers jumped out to a 7-1 lead following the run.

“It’s definitely a confidence thing,” said LaFontaine, who had 14 kills, five aces and 2½ blocks. “When I go up and I know that I’m going to just ace it, that’s when I think I go up with the most power.”

Otay Ranch (34-9) packed the punch to give Huntington Beach a challenge, especially with Zoe Rachow (31 assists) finding Ximena Cordero (18 kills) and Andrea Torres (11 kills) in different spots on the court.

Middle blockers Kylie Leopard, a junior, and Amika Swanson, a sophomore, as well as sophomore opposite Taylor Ponchak, had a big role to play in putting up a block to slow down the Mustangs’ big hitters.

“Just staying light on our feet and being able to react,” Leopard said of the Oilers’ strategy to combat the powerful swings of Cordero. “We knew coming into this that [Cordero] likes hitting the seam and hitting the angle, so making sure I move to close the seam. With the right side, it was just being fast to react. [Torres] had a pretty good arm, too.”

Ponchak had a team-high 17 kills to go with 1½ blocks for Huntington Beach, which plays host to No. 6-seeded Redondo Union on Thursday. Junior setter Dani Sparks contributed 32 assists, 14 digs and dropped in two aces, and Leopard added six kills and a block.

Pazanti said senior libero Tori Hagan saw limited action due to illness, resulting in sophomore Olivia Foye playing at libero for the first time all season. Foye filled in with 19 digs, five assists and three aces.

“That’s the first match that Olivia has played libero the whole year,” Pazanti said. “She jumped out there, we kind of worked on it a little bit yesterday. Tori was at least able to come in and serve. She would have been probably too fatigued to play the whole match.

“She did a great job, which meant [junior outside hitter] Kami Milius came in on the left, because Olivia has been playing on the left. Kami did a great job passing and playing defense, too.”

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