SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA VOLLEYBALL REGIONAL PLAYOFFS : DIVISION II : Huntington Beach Settles Matters on Court With Victory

In a State tournament that began with some questionable seedings for Edison and Huntington Beach, the Sunset League rivals settled their differences on the court Saturday.

Earlier this season, the teams split two five-game league matches. But Huntington Beach won the rubber match, closing out Edison, 10-15, 15-13, 15-9, 15-4, in a second-round Southern California Regional Division II match at Huntington Beach High.

Junior outside hitter Melissa Wendt had 23 kills and setter Mindy Adam had 54 assists for top-seeded Huntington Beach (18-3), which will play Bakersfield Stockdale, a 15-12, 6-15, 9-15, 15-12, 15-12 winner over Del Mar Torrey Pines, in the Division II regional final Tuesday.

But the Oilers will travel for the regional final because they have the No. 3 travel priority number. Second-seeded Stockdale has the No. 1 travel priority numbers.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Huntington Beach Coach Rocky Ciarelli said. “I don’t know why they didn’t just seed us third. Maybe they wanted us to play Edison in the second round.”

Edison Coach Dave Mohs questioned the seeding for the Division II bracket last week. The Chargers (20-4) won the Sunset League and Huntington Beach finished second. Edison also was ranked higher in the final state coaches’ poll.

But home-court advantage probably wouldn’t have helped Edison enough Saturday.

Wendt, a 6-foot-2 junior who was a second-team all-county selection by The Times last season, played a strong match but she had plenty of help.

Jill Meyers, a 5-10 junior middle blocker, had 15 kills and Kim Watts, a 5-7 senior, added 14. Senior middle blocker Stacy Vanderwal had seven kills, including three early in the fifth game to help the Oilers take a 6-0 lead.

And Adam used all of those weapons to keep the Chargers guessing.

“Mindy did some good things early and got everyone involved,” Huntington Beach Coach Rocky Ciarelli said. “Jill had her share, Kim had her share, Stacy played a great match.

“That’s as balanced as we’ve been all year. And when we don’t have to depend on one person so much, it makes it that much easier.”

Things started easily enough for Huntington Beach as it took a 6-1 lead in Game 1. But Edison’s defense helped force some hitting errors by Wendt, and the Chargers won 13 of the last 16 points.

Huntington Beach raced to a 10-1 lead in Game 2, but Edison battled back, and a spike by Edison’s Jennifer Porterfield made it 14-12. But a kill by Wendt gave the Oilers a side out, then a block by Vanderwal gave the Oilers the game.

It all began to unravel for Edison in Game 3, when Erin McCown, who had 12 kills, fired a spike wide. A kill by McCown would have pulled Edison to within 12-8, and Mohs’ disagreement with the call cost him a yellow card and the Chargers lost Game 3, 15-9.