Girls’ Volleyball: Two tournamets are playoff primers

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The last big weekend of tournament volleyball starts today and continues Saturday with the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions and the Redondo tournament, each involving some of the top teams in the state and the nation.

Both events, however, are being impacted by wildfires that have burned in Southern California for most of the week.

A 16-team field for the Santa Barbara tournament has been pared to 12 because two San Diego Section schools and two Orange County-area schools were forced to pull out in the last two days because of travel restrictions imposed because of safety concerns over poor air quality caused by fires in those regions.

Still left in the field, however, is Mira Costa, ranked No. 1 nationally for most of the season by PrepVolleyball.com, and San Jose Mitty, the team the Mustangs beat for the state Division II championship last year. Mira Costa also defeated Mitty for last year’s Santa Barbara tournament title.

Mira Costa (23-0) will be trying to win its third championship in four weeks after taking the Las Vegas Durango Fall Classic and the Torrey Pines California Challenge.

The Mustangs feature USC-bound senior setter Kendall Bateman and sophomore standout Falyn Fanoimoana. Bateman was named the Durango tournament MVP, while Fanoimoana was selected the Torrey Pines tournament MVP.

Mitty (24-2), ranked No. 21 nationally, is guided by senior setter Emily Burke, who has committed to San Jose State.

The field also includes Santa Barbara (15-4), which is ranked No. 19 nationally, and would have included Newport Harbor (19-3), ranked No. 23 in the country, but the Sailors will be absent for the first time in 20 years because of the decision Thursday by Orange County schools to cancel all athletic activities for the week, even those taking place far from any fire-related dangers. The other Orange County team forced to pull out was Corona del Mar.

Losing those schools from his tournament did not please Santa Barbara Coach John Gannon.

‘I called one district and told the representative that this is kind of ludicrous,’ he said. ‘I know schools need to make their decisions, but when you have a blanket thing like that, it’s frustrating. It’s going to be strange not having Newport Harbor playing here.’

Another team of note, especially for Mira Costa outside hitter Stevi Robinson, that will be participating is Bakersfield Stockdale. Robinson, who has commited to Pepperdine, transfered from Stockdale before the school year began.

Redondo, ranked No. 14 in the state by MaxPreps.com and rated No. 26 nationally, is the top team in its own tournament.

The Sea Hawks (18-5) won the event in 2005 and were runners-up to Santa Margarita last season.

Both tournaments are losing teams that hail from the San Diego area because of school-imposed travel restrictions.

Torrey Pines and Cathedral Catholic are out of the Santa Barbara event, and the Redondo tournament has been re-seeded as a 27-team event after five schools from the San Diego area were forced to drop out. Get matchups and details here.

I gotta say that, in these cases, at least, I don’t get it.

You’d think schools in the affected areas would be happy that their kids were scheduled to be getting out of Dodge -- and let ‘em go.

- Lauren Peterson

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