Orange County Girls’ All-Star Volleyball Game : 4-A Uses Edge in Height to Top 5-A in Three Games

The 4-A team defeated the 5-A, 16-14, 15-10, 15-11, in the Orange County High School Girls’ Volleyball All-Star Game Friday at Golden West College.

It was a match that the 4-A seemed destined to win the moment the teams were put together a couple of weeks ago.

The 4-A had eight players 6-feet tall or taller. Four players, El Toro High School’s Elaine Youngs (6-1), Marina’s Dawn Charroin (6-1) and Huntington Beach’s Laurie Jones (6-1) and Sharon Kasser (6-2), dominated at the net.

Jones had six kills in the first game, and Charroin had the final two kills in the game. Youngs had five kills in the second game and Kasser came up with six in the last.

“They were just too big,” said Corona del Mar’s Charlie Brande, the 5-A coach.

El Toro’s Mike Jagd, the 4-A coach, said his group may be one of the best girls’ high school all-star teams he has seen. Jagd’s reasoning went beyond height: Seven of the 12 players on the 4-A team play together on the Cal Juniors club team in Huntington Beach.

“They already knew about each other,” he said. “They weren’t coming in cold. These players already have a relationship on the court. They know what each can do and can’t.”

That helped 4-A setter Stephanie Cox of Mission Viejo High. With a wealth of tall hitters, Cox did an exceptional job of getting the ball to the right person. Cox also plays for Cal Juniors, so there wasn’t much guesswork involved.

“A lot of times, in a game like this, a setter has pressure on her to make everyone happy,” Jagd said. “But Stephanie knows everyone from playing with them. She knows who should get the ball and when. And the players know she knows.”

The smaller 5-A team had trouble all match hitting through the big 4-A blocks, although Newport Harbor’s Jenny Evans did get 10 kills.

The play on both sides at times was ragged, which is bound to happen in an all-star game. Even with seven players from the same club team, the 4-A made numerous unforced errors, as did the 5-A.

“As a coach, you’re just trying to get in as many kids as you can,” Brande said. “So chemistry really isn’t given a lot of time to develop.”

Fortunately for the 4-A team, it has been developing for some time with Cal Juniors.