HIGH SCHOOL PLAYOFF ROUNDUP : Determined Nordhoff Girls Settle a Score Against La Mirada

The Nordhoff High girls’ volleyball team turned up its intensity level Saturday night at home and ran over La Mirada, 15-3, 15-4, 15-9, in a Southern Section 2-A Division second-round playoff match.

Remembering how they had blown a two-games-to-one lead and lost in the fifth game to Atascadero at home in last year’s second round, the Rangers (14-1) made sure history didn’t repeat by going to their fine middle-blocking tandem of juniors Alison Nofrey and Kortney Rogers.

Nofrey recorded 14 kills and five blocks, and Rogers added nine kills and one block. And when Nordhoff, the sixth-ranked team in the 2-A Division, needed to go to the outside, there was junior setter Sami Sawyer putting away nine kills to go with her 25 assists.

“We were really prepared for this match,” Sawyer said. “We went out strong and kept it going.”

La Mirada (13-3) tried to establish its middle game early behind 6-foot-1 senior Melonie Trenary and 6-3 senior Kate Larrabee. But weak serving slowed down the Matadors’ attack and Nordhoff rolled to a 5-0 first-game lead behind Rogers and Nofrey.

Nofrey had six kills and one block in the first game alone as Nordhoff expanded its lead to 13-1 and finally put it away after a hitting error by Trenary and a service ace by Nofrey.

After falling behind, 4-1, in the second game, La Mirada got a spark as Larrabee blocked three spike attempts for two points and a side out. But Nofrey and Sawyer came through with a pair of kills each to re-establish order and build the Nordhoff lead back to 8-3. The Matadors scored one point on a Rogers hitting error to make it 8-4 before the Rangers rolled off the final seven points.

La Mirada finally found the mark with its serving in Game 3 and sprinted out to a 7-0 advantage. That led to a Nordhoff timeout, in which Coach Cheryl Glass reminded her team of last year’s collapse to Atascadero.

“I told them we needed to play with intensity and passion,” Glass said. “I don’t know if we played with much passion, but we started fighting back after that.”

A strong serve from Joanna Sandefur, a Nofrey stuff block and a Rogers ace got Nordhoff moving again and the Rangers rallied to tie it with seven consecutive points.

La Mirada took one more brief lead at 8-7 when Rogers sent a spike wide, but Nofrey’s hitting and a pair of smart dump shots by Sawyer then sparked Nordhoff to seven points before Sawyer ended the match with an ace.