Breakers rounding into form
Orange Coast League champion Laguna Beach moved a step closer to a perfect league girls’ volleyball season Tuesday by sweeping host Costa Mesa, 25-16, 25-8, 25-11.
The Breakers, ranked third in CIF Southern Section Division 1-A, won their seventh straight league title and qualified for the CIF playoffs for the 38th straight year. Alyse Wallace-Ford had 14 kills and seven digs, Avery Bush finished with eight kills and five digs and Allison Palmer 18 assists and seven digs as the Breakers ran their league record to 9-0 and overall mark to 19-6.
Laguna also picked up an OCL victory on Oct. 21 with another sweep, this time, 25-9, 25-9, 25-8, over visiting Godinez. Marina Paul had 11 kills and Sevana Dvorak and Rachele Killian added 13 and 11 assists, respectively.
In a nonleague match Monday, the Breakers took down Mira Costa, the sixth-ranked team in Division 1-AA, 27-25, 19-25, 25-19, 25-17. Wallace-Ford turned in 26 kills and 13 digs, Paul had 10 kills and 15 digs, Caroline Holte 13 digs, Dvorak 10 digs, Julia Goggin nine digs and Palmer 27 assists and 13 digs.
“I thought we played hard the whole time,” Laguna Coach Lance Stewart said of the Mira Costa match. “We served well in the games we won and even served well in the one (game) we lost. It was a good win for us.”
The annual girls’ volleyball alumni match is at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Dugger Gym. The frosh/soph team will take on the junior varsity team at 5:30 p.m.
On Thursday, Laguna plays at Edison, the No. 2-ranked team in Division 1-AA. The Breakers defeated the Chargers in the Queen Court Tournament in Anaheim in late-August, just before the start of the regular season.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge,” Stewart said. “It’s good for us to be playing really good competition before heading into the (CIF) playoffs. We played Mira Costa late in the season and we play Edison late. We’re excited for the opportunity.”
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Cross-Country
The Laguna boys’ and girls’ teams ran last Saturday (Oct. 22) at the Mt. SAC Invitational in Walnut. Below are the times turned in by the Breakers:
Boys: Jeff White (16 minutes 21 seconds); Jack Crawford (17:04); Mitch Kimball (17:10); Ryan Jones (17:12); Stone Riff (17:13); Tim Williams (17:42); Casey Koprowski (17:50); Grant Barton (17:55); Miguel Jaimes (17:59); Kevin Tovar (18:07); Ian Ring (18:58); Nathan Sweet (19:14); Mike Santana (19:18); Tony Davia (19:29); Brendan Skinfill (19:32); Mike Lee (19:58); Vincent Lasislao (20:33); Loic Colbiere (20:35); Spencer Donavan (20:46); James Cockrell (21:21); Ethan Schlatter (21:47); Vann Seabass (22:03); Tim Nguyen (22:19); John Church (24:51); Kaleb Bowman (25:10); Lucas Conner (26:13).
Girls (sixth-place finish): Natasha Strickland (18:47); Janie Crawford (19:51); Eliza Romero (20:21); Carlee Ressler (20:53); Kay Baskevitch (21:01); Monica White (21:03); Marisa Merchant (21:17); Brielle Budroe (21:17); Amanda Ozuna (22:19); Faith Hale (23:08); Julia Nasiell (23:46); Rachel Hunter (24:10); Stormy Enright (25:50); Charlotte McManus (26:55); Georgia Conti (28:06).
Both Laguna teams will run Wednesday at the Orange Coast League finals at Centennial Park in Santa Ana.
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Girls’ Tennis
Laguna wrapped up another Orange Coast League championship by scoring 18-0 sweeps against Godinez on Oct. 20 and Tuesday against Costa Mesa.
The Breakers also played at the Dana Hills Coastal Championships on Friday and Saturday () at the Laguna Niguel Racquet Club. The colleigate-style tournament drew teams from Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palm Springs and North Carolina.
Laguna played Menlo (6-2 loss), Providence Day (4-4, 47-38 tie-breaker loss), Dana Hills (4-4, 49-49 tie-breaker defaulted by Dana Hills) and La Jolla Country Day (5-3 loss).
Laguna will compete at the OCL prelims tournament starting Wednesday. The tournament concludes Thursday.
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Boys’ Water Polo
The top-ranked Breakers completed a perfect (5-0) Orange Coast League season Wednesday by routing visiting Saddleback, 21-4. Tommy Renner’s five goals led the way, Samer Alkateb, Nolan McConnell and Riley Thomas all scored three goals and Nicky Brunner and Duncan Lynde both scored twice. McConnell also had a team-high in assists (eight) and steals (four) and Erik Henrikson finished with 14 saves.
Last weekend, Laguna played at the North-South Challenge in the Bay Area and went 5-1 to finish in fifth place.
“I was really proud of the way we played up north and how we represented our program and our community,” Laguna Coach Ethan Damato said. “We played four really tough games and I felt that our guys came together and played better each game. Our wins over Los Alamitos and Loyola were really fun.
The Breakers next week play two nonleague matches against ranked opponents. First, they’ll travel Wednesday for a 4 p.m. battle with Aliso Niguel, the fourth-ranked team in Division 3. On Nov. 4, they’ll take on Agoura, the top-ranked team in Division 4.
Twitter: @MikeSciacca