Ventura Falls in Volleyball Title Match

Long Beach St. Anthony High has grown accustomed to strong showings in the Ventura Invitational girls’ volleyball tournament, recording two championships and three appearances in the final in the previous three years.

The Saints made it three titles in a row Saturday at Ventura, turning back Nordhoff, 16-14, in a heart-stopping semifinal match and then dispatching Ventura, 15-7, in the championship match of the 15-team tournament.

Tournament most valuable player Maureen Cox, a senior middle blocker, crushed Ventura’s hopes of taking its first title when she used the jump serve to rattle off eight consecutive points and give St. Anthony a 9-2 lead.

From there, Cox combined with her sister, sophomore middle blocker Teresa Cox, to provide enough punch to knock off the Cougars.

“We couldn’t pass that serve,” said Ventura senior setter Wendy Ward. “You take that away from (St. Anthony) and it would have been even.”

Said Maureen Cox: “I serve tough when I know we need it.”

Even the jump serve wasn’t enough to keep Nordhoff from taking a 13-11 lead in the semifinals.

The Rangers rode the superb setting of Sami Sawyer, clutch hitting of Kortney Rogers and sharp serving by Maryl Davis to take the lead.

But Nordhoff could not put away St. Anthony.

“We’re the type of team that likes to give everyone heart attacks,” Maureen Cox said.

Teresa Cox had a key block and a dink to tie the score and the Saints made fewer errors than Nordhoff the rest of the way to win in the showdown of two of the Southern Section 2-A Division’s top teams.

Ventura, meanwhile, broke out to a 4-0 lead in the other semifinal against Alemany before being caught at 9-9.

Ward then stepped to the forefront to take charge of the Cougar attack and Ventura held off the Indians, 15-13.

Nordhoff, which finished second to Alemany and had split two games with the Indians in pool play, defeated Alemany, 15-6, in the third-place match. St. Anthony and Ventura won the other pools, and Westlake and Hueneme were the runner-ups.

In quarterfinal-round play, Nordhoff stuffed Hueneme, 15-8, and Alemany edged Westlake, 15-13.