Huntington Beach Sweeps Past Esperanza

The Huntington Beach girls’ volleyball team has developed the useful skill of turning opponents to mush without even hitting a ball.

It happened again Tuesday, when fourth-ranked Esperanza got wobbly-kneed moments after play began and never recovered its composure in a Sunset League match at Huntington Beach. Top-ranked Huntington Beach won, 15-5, 15-8, 15-11.

“I don’t think [the Aztecs] played as well as they can. I think to beat us, you’re going to have to play,” Huntington Beach Coach Rocky Ciarelli said.

Julie Hinsche capped the victory with two aces for the Oilers (10-0, 3-0).

Esperanza (6-1, 2-1) led, 4-1, in the first game but Huntington Beach went on a 14-1 run to win it. The Aztecs again led, 4-0, in the second before stalling and scoring only four more points in the game.

“For some reason, we didn’t come ready to play. We basically choked,” Esperanza Coach Kurt Kersten said. “I know we were nervous to start. I think we got over that, then our passing game fell apart. Our setting was not very good and our hitters did not put the ball away.”

In the third game, the Aztecs battled back from an 8-4 deficit to bring it to within one point, 12-11. But the Oilers scored the next point on an Aztec hitting error before Hinsche served her two aces.

“I think the biggest factor in the game was ourselves. We beat ourselves,” Kersten said.

They aren’t the first team to come unglued in the presence of Huntington Beach. It was the fifth time the Oilers have defeated a team ranked in the county’s top 10 in a best-of-five-game match.

If the mystique of the perennially powerful Oiler team doesn’t disable an opponent, their large battalion of hitters usually does.

“I think if you look at most girls’ or boys’ volleyball teams, I think you can key on someone, and I don’t think you can do that against us,” Ciarelli said.