HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL : SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA REGIONALS : Poway’s Season Ends With Its First Defeat

Their neon pink warm-ups gave Poway’s gym a spark. Then their play lit the place up.

Saturday night in a Southern California Regional Division I girls’ quarterfinal volleyball match, Corona del Mar swept previously undefeated Poway, 15-9, 15-10, 15-11, in Division I play.

It was a bitter loss for Poway (20-1), the two-time defending San Diego Section champion, ranked fourth in the state and ninth in the country by USA Today.

“We wanted this so bad,” said junior outside hitter Heather Collins, the Titans’ brightest performer this night. “It was our dream to get past the second round.”

But Corona del Mar (23-1), ranked second in the state and third in the nation, never let the hosts into the game.

Poway led only twice, once in the first game and once in the third. Even then, it was only by a point.

Only in the third game did Poway stay even, allowing the Sea Knights just a point at a time. Corona del Mar’s biggest lead was 13-9. Poway also held off three match points until Tracy Schriber (11 kills) found a hole in the Poway defense and ended it.

“The spurts were there,” Poway Coach Lisa Reis said. “Like in the third game. I thought the whole match would be like that.”

Sea Knight outside hitter Danielle Everett was the primary reason the spurts were so limited. Everett seemed to always be in the right place at the right time, finishing with 25 kills.

“We knew they had a good outside hitter,” Reis said. “She was good, wasn’t she?”

Everett, a 4.3-grade-point average student and Division I college prospect--she is considering Stanford and Cal--said she knew Poway had a height advantage but thought it could be negated.

“We like to attack,” she said, “go after every point. We heard they were real tall, undefeated and had a real good setter (Amy Boyer), but we try and play confident.”

Poway on the other hand, didn’t look so confident. “I guess we were really nervous,” said Collins, who had 15 kills.

So were the team’s fans. The usually vocal crowd was subdued, except during those occasional spurts.

Poway also had some difficulty in its passing game, something Collins said they talked about in the huddles.

“We talked about needing to get that one pass to get our offense going,” she said.

Reis, who may or may not return next year to coach--she has a young son at home and she said she wants to spend more time with him--was disappointed with the loss.

“I wanted it to be a better match,” she said. “Win or lose, I wanted to say, ‘Hey, we went out and did our best.’

“I don’t think we did.”