Laguna Beach Cuts Esperanza Down to Size

The trees were tall and all around, but the Laguna Beach girls’ volleyball team slashed deftly through them to arrive at the threshold of its second-consecutive Southern Section top-division final.

Laguna Beach used tough serving and accurate passing to defeat the much taller Esperanza, 15-8, 15-8, 5-15, 15-10, Tuesday at Esperanza in the semifinals of the Division I-AA tournament.

Esperanza, which has three players who are 6 feet 2 in its starting lineup, towered over Laguna Beach, which starts 6-1 Ashley Roth and five other players all well under 6-0.

“We’re little, but we’re mighty,” said Laguna Beach Coach Vickie Gentry, who is in her first year at Laguna Beach after six successful years as coach at St. Margaret’s.

The Artists (22-2) advance to the Southern Section Division I-AA final, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Cypress College, where they will play Manhattan Beach Mira Costa. The final will be a rematch of last season’s Division I final, which Mira Costa won.

The heart of the Artist squad is Cal State Fullerton-bound setter Carolyn Kittell, who had 37 assists and 15 digs against Esperanza. Roth and Kelly Garner each finished with 11 kills. Liz Belloni added 10 kills and several incredible digs.

“[Belloni] is what I call our vacuum on the court, where there’s a ball, she goes to it,” Gentry said.

In the fourth game, Esperanza and Laguna Beach stalled at 7-7, slugging it out through 16 sideouts.

“I wasn’t happy siding-out against Laguna Beach, I’m happy when the ball is hitting the floor, hard,” said Esperanza Coach Kurt Kersten.

Finally, Esperanza was called for a blocking violation, giving Laguna Beach a point and Roth then served an ace.

After an Aztec hitting error and an Artist kill by Molly Jahraus, Laguna Beach led, 11-7.

Dana Chuha had a block and Trina Kightlinger had a kill to bring Esperanza (19-5) within two points, 11-9, but Belloni had a kill for a sideout and Laguna Beach went on a 3-1 run to bring match point, which Garner won with a kill.

In another Division I-AA match:

Manhattan Beach Mira Costa 3, Newport Harbor 2--Top-seeded Mira Costa (23-1) lost the first game but rallied to defeat fourth-seeded Newport Harbor, 8-15, 15-6, 9-15, 15-13, 15-4. The Sailors finish 17-4.