Torrance Beats Saugus for Division III Title

The Saugus High girls’ volleyball team maintained that it had only itself to blame for its three-game loss to Torrance in the Southern Section Division III championship match.

The Tartars, who defeated Saugus’ archrival, Canyon, in the semifinals two days earlier, knocked off the Centurions, 16-14, 15-9, 15-9, Saturday night at Cerritos College.

“There are going to be some angry players riding home on the bus tonight,” Saugus Coach Bobbie Estes said. “And do you know who they’re going to be angry at? Themselves.”

The overwhelming opinion of the Saugus players was that their timid hitting, service errors and an untimely case of nerves were the reasons they lost.

“It wasn’t them, it was us,” Centurion setter Laura Wagoner said. “Torrance was a regular team. They weren’t spectacular. They weren’t bad. They were consistent and we weren’t. We also weren’t hitting through the ball--we were just hitting it so it would go in. You can’t do that in the final.”

Added Estes: “I’m sure it was just nerves. Sometimes I can intimidate them out of being nervous. They’ll get mad at me so they’ll forget about being nervous, but not tonight.”

Torrance (19-0) won its second consecutive title, led by Tami Burchard (18 kills) and Sunshine VanWie (15 kills).

Saugus (13-3) tried to take solace in the knowledge it they advanced to the final for the first time in school history.

“My kids asked me, ‘How many times have you been deep into the playoffs?’ ” said Estes, whose team advance to the semifinals last season. “I said, ‘One.’ In the end this is pretty sweet.”

Estes’ daughter, Lindsay, led the Centurions with 21 kills but also had six service errors. Amy Gillis added nine kills and Amanda Cresap had seven.

But emblematic of the Saugus difficulties, outside hitter Cindy Luby, normally an offensive leader, had only two kills.

“Normally we’re a well-balanced team, and we can go to four or five different players,” Bobbie Estes said. “We’re not a one-hitter team.”

But against the Tartars, Saugus was. “And that was the difference tonight,” Estes said.