PREP ROUNDUP : La Habra Moves Into Tie for First

Eighth-ranked La Habra used its size advantage at the net and a strong service game to defeat fourth-ranked Sunny Hills, 17-15, 15-3, 4-15, 15-11, Tuesday at Sunny Hills and move into a first-place tie with the Lancers in the Freeway League.

“We served tough just like we wanted to and we blocked well at the net, especially on the off-speed stuff,” Highlander Coach Rob Machan said.

The teams exchanged leads 11 times in the first game and both held game point before Sunny Hills’ Jennifer Coopman spiked into the net tying the game, 15-15.

Jami Ediger then blocked a Lancer kill attempt and Barbie Woberg followed with a well-placed spike to lead the Highlanders to victory in Game 1.

In the second game, La Habra (12-1, 8-1) took leads of 6-0 and 14-2 before Michelle Halliday blocked a spike to give La Habra a 2-0 lead.

Sunny Hills (14-1, 8-1) played solidly in the third game, scoring nine consecutive points after La Habra had cut the Lancers’ lead to 6-4.

In Game 4, La Habra blew open a 6-6 game by scoring four consecutive points on two Lancer hitting errors, a block by Becky Sidotti and Kathryn Coats’ spike.

Sunny Hills closed the lead to 11-8, but a net call and three consecutive kills by Coats finished the two-hour match.

Coats finished with 17 kills to lead La Habra and Kameron Shambeck added 13.

Jennifer Coopman led the Lancers with 14 kills.