DIVISION VI VOLLEYBALL : St. Margaret’s Loses Composure, Section Final

Nerves of steel turned to mush precisely when the St. Margaret’s girls’ volleyball team could least afford it.

In their first Southern Section appearance since 1991, the Tartans clammed up and made it easy for Cambria Coast Union to win its first section title, with a 15-9, 15-11, 15-11 Division VI victory Saturday morning at Cerritos College.

“I don’t know what happened, we were flat,” said Monica Girard, an outside hitter and St. Margaret’s (18-4) lone senior. “We didn’t talk to each other, we didn’t communicate. We were nervous.”

For a team that has looked huge deficits in the eye and been able to overcome them most of this season, Tartan Coach Vickie Gentry could only cite jitters to explain her team’s demise.

Gentry even gave St. Margaret’s (18-4) an hour-long pep talk Friday to convince the Tartans to play for fun, but her words fell on deaf ears.

St. Margaret’s looked as if it would extend the match to a fourth game when it roared back from a five-point deficit in Game 3 and took an 11-8 lead. But the Broncos (20-0) tied it on a cross-court kill by Laura Lanna (12 kills), then rolled to victory.