Southern Section Volleyball : Newport Harbor Beats Mira Costa in Final

Newport Harbor High School’s volleyball team needed less an easy-going coach than an analyst with a healthy understanding of psychotherapy. Who else could cure this split personality?

Consider Sailor setter Drew Sheward moving from complacency to hand-waving confrontations with the officials. Or how the Sailors could be winning big one game and getting blown out the very next.

Newport Harbor was able to regain control and defeat Mira Costa, 7-15, 15-11, 3-15, 15-6, 15-13, in the Southern Section 4-A volleyball final Saturday at Marina High School.

“When you get into the finals, it just seems to happen that way, they just roll through games,” said Dan Glenn, Newport Harbor coach. “I figured the fifth game was going to be a blowout either way.”

Like much of the match, it defied expectations or consistency. Newport Harbor built a 10-4 lead and, just when it seemed on the projected blowout, Mira Costa rallied to 14-13.

The winning point also seemed unlikely. Mira Costa, a team which repeatedly handled some of the Sailors’ best set-ups, lost on an ace serve by Sheward.

Immediately before that emotional roller-coaster of a fifth game, Glenn escorted his players outside, where he told them to just play naturally. They seemed to return to normal form.

Hugh Foster led the Sailors with 31 kills, and John Alstrom had 19. Both players are All-Southern Section selections.

“Alstrom and Foster are just the best outside hitters I’ve ever coached,” said Glenn, who considers this team Newport Harbor’s best ever. “They’re as strong as you can get, my fat pair.”

Eric Fonoimoana led Mira Costa with 22 kills, and Jeff West had 19.

The Sailors faced the Mustangs only once this year, playing a single game during the Mira Costa-Redondo tournament. Newport Harbor rallied to win the game, 15-9, after trailing, 7-2. That game offered little for the planning of strategy.

“It’s like playing three innings of a baseball game after playing a doubleheader,” the coach said.

Newport Harbor ends the season at 18-0. Mira Costa, ranked second all season, finished 21-1.

In the 3-A final, Loyola won its fourth title in five years, defeating Central league rival Arcadia, 15-11, 15-9, 15-13.