Dana Hills Handles the Artists

The Dana Hills and Laguna Beach girls’ volleyball teams provided a fitting end to the regular season and a sneak preview of the playoffs in a nonleague match Friday at Laguna Beach High.

Dana Hills won, 15-10, 7-15, 4-15, 15-8, 15-10, behind 17 kills from Michelle Chambers and 10 blocks from Jamie Fowler.

The two teams could meet again in the Southern Section playoffs, which begin next week. In Division I-AA, Dana Hills (18-3) is ranked No. 2 and Laguna Beach (19-2) is ranked No. 3.

The match was see-saw, with both teams taking turns playing brilliantly in stretches and dominating the other.

“That’s competition,” said Laguna Beach Coach Vickie Gentry, “You have two great teams.

After breaking out of a 10-10 tie to win the first game, Dana Hills struggled in the next two games.

“I think we might have played a little tight after we got the first game,” Dana Hills Coach Dave Hollaway said. “We played safe in games two and three. I said, ‘If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down swinging.’ ”

Hollaway switched outside hitter April Schleede to middle blocker and moved middle blocker Jenny Wilson to the outside to start Game 4. It was a lineup the Dolphins had never even practiced, but it worked. The Dolphins rode the momentum of their victory in Game 4 into Game 5, taking a 14-5 lead.

Laguna Beach held off one match-point attempt before battling to make it 14-8 in a run capped by a kill down the line by Liz Belloni.

The Artists stifled three more Dolphin match-point attempts before Schleede went up for a solo block against Cameryn DeGeus to win it.

DeGeus led Laguna Beach with 19 kills and Belloni had 18 digs.

Michelle Quon, who orally committed to attend UCLA earlier this week, helped Dana Hills with 11 digs.