Agoura Wins in Marathon to Reach Volleyball Final

After four games and 87 minutes, Thursday’s Southern Section 3-A Division semifinal volleyball match between Agoura High and Rim of the World was even.

So leave it to Agoura to take the fifth.

The third-ranked Chargers, survived to beat Rim of the World, 15-2, 12-15, 15-8, 3-15, 15-8, advancing into Saturday’s 3-A championship match at Marina High in Huntington Beach.

In the final, Agoura will meet La Habra, a 15-4, 15-6, 15-8 winner of Anaheim Canyon on Thursday.

The loss was the first of the year for the Fighting Scots (20-1), the Sunkist League champion.

“They’re a great team,” Agoura Coach Alan Segal said. “We’ve been in a lot of tough games. I’ve got to give it to these kids, they played their guts out all year.”

Outside hitter Christy Janssen led Agoura’s charge, recording 19 kills and two service aces. And the Charger senior came through when Agoura needed an extra push in the fifth game.

With her team trailing, 8-7, Janssen served four consecutive points--including an ace--to give the Chargers an 11-8 advantage that kept growing until the final point.

But Janssen’s heroics Thursday only confirmed what Segal has known all along.

“If she’s not the 3-A Player of the Year, there’s a problem,” he said. “There’s nobody better than her.”

With Agoura (15-3) leading, 12-8, in the final game and junior Shannon Carpenter serving on the match’s last sideout, Janssen tipped the ball over the net and it fell to the floor. Carpenter then launched another serve, but the Fighting Scots could not return the ball in three hits.

On match point, Janssen landed a spike between Rim of the World defenders Julie Noyes and Katie Ojendyk that sent the Chargers into their second championship game in the 1980s.

Agoura, the Frontier League champion, advanced to the 3-A final in 1987 but was defeated by San Gabriel.

Having taken game one, 15-2, the Chargers dropped a spine-tingling second game, 15-12, after jumping to a 4-0 lead and, later, an 11-7 margin.

However Rim of the World middle hitter Tahlia Wagner served four points in a row to tie the score, 11-11, and Ojendyk added two more points to put the game out of reach for Agoura.

“We really need to win that second game,” Fighting Scots Coach Jill Lawler said. “Being down 0-2 would have been disastrous (for Agoura).”