GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS : Brentwood Bears Down, Defeats St. Margaret’s

Appropriately, members of the Los Angeles Brentwood girls’ volleyball team wore glitter on their faces Thursday, when they played host to St. Margaret’s in a semifinal match of the Southern Section Division V tournament.

The two-time defending State champion Eagles are the perennial stars of the playoffs in their division and this season is no different. Top-seeded Brentwood sparkled in a 15-11, 15-10, 16-14 victory over St. Margaret’s that earned the Eagles their eighth appearance in a Southern Section final, which is Saturday at Cypress College.

St. Margaret’s (17-4) showed moments of brilliance, denying Brentwood match-point at 14-11 in the third game before coming back to tie the score, 14-14, on a block and a kill by January Olds and another kill by Stefanie Canright.

“They made us beat them, absolutely,” said Jeff Porter, 18-year veteran Brentwood coach. “There wasn’t a single point where anybody gave anybody anything.”

But Lisa Forst served a winner to give Brentwood (15-3) another point and Tartan Lisa Bevill set one too close to the net for her teammates to reach on match point.

“If we got that game, I definitely think it would have gone five [games],” St. Margaret’s Coach Vickie Gentry said. “The emotions are there, I’ve got a lot of seniors, no one wants it to be your last game.”

St. Margaret’s, which starts four seniors, returned all six starters from a team that advanced to the Southern Section quarterfinals last season. The Tartans still could receive an at-large berth to the State tournament, which begins Tuesday.

Gentry kept only eight players on her varsity roster all season but called up two players from junior varsity for playoffs.

“My team is pretty versatile all the way around,” Gentry said.

Shay Trette, a senior outside hitter, led the Tartans with 14 kills and Bevill, a senior setter, had 10 digs, five solo blocks and 30 assists.

Brentwood jumped to a 6-2 lead before easily winning the first game. St. Margaret’s led, 4-2, at the start of the second game before Brentwood went on an 8-0 scoring run to take the lead, 10-4. Behind two kills by Trette and one by Olds, the Eagles put together a 6-0 run to tie it. But Rebecca Shumsky served an ace to spark the Eagles, who scored the final five points of the game.

The Eagles were led by Katherine Kuchenbecker, a senior outside hitter who had 16 kills.

In Division IV:

Paso Robles 3, Ocean View 0--Katie Lindquist and Sara Pollaro each had eight kills for Ocean View (16-2), which lost, 15-4, 15-11, 16-14, to second-seeded Paso Robles.