Harvard-Westlake powered by talent and revenge

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If I was a player on the Laguna Beach girls’ volleyball team, I’d be shaking in my knee pads right about now. I don’t mean to take anything away from the second-seeded Breakers’ remarkable season, but top-seeded Harvard-Westlake enters tonight’s/Tuesday’s Division III regional final looking to continue its unstoppable 2007 revenge tour.

The Wolverines have already laid the smackdown on top-notch opponents like Marymount and Flintridge Sacred Heart (they actually beat them three times this year) and avenged a loss earlier in the season to Bishop Montgomery by taking it down in four games in last week’s regional semifinals.

Now, Harvard-Westlake sets its crosshairs on a Breakers’ squad that handed them a humbling three-game loss last year in the finals of the Dave Mohs Tournament. I’m sure the Wolverines’ senior-laden squad hasn’t forgotten about that loss and I’m sure that’ll be some of the motivation in propelling Harvard-Westlake to what will be its first appearance in a divisional state title match since 2001.

Of course, while revenge could be a motivating factor for the Wolverines, they have the raw talent necessary to crash the Breakers. Megan Norton, Emily Waterhouse, the Princeton-bound Cathryn Quinn and Katherine Sebastian are big reasons why the Wolverines have surrendered only 10 games in their current 18-match winning streak.

In my opinion, the Wolverines are the next-best team in Southern California behind Mira Costa and it’s just a matter of time before state title No. 4 (they also won in 1995, 2000 and 2001) is theirs.

-- Austin Knoblauch