Santa Margarita Has Easy Time With Visalia Redwood

Soaring after a recent five-game thriller in the Southern Section finals, the Santa Margarita girls’ volleyball team floated back to earth Tuesday, with a relatively mundane, 15-5, 15-5, 15-5, victory over Visalia Redwood in the first round of the Division II state tournament.

The Eagles won the Southern Section Division II-A title Saturday, with a come-from-behind victory over top-seeded Westlake Village Westlake that brought the crowd at Cypress College to its feet and earned the school its first section girls’ volleyball championship.

And even though the Eagles (15-5) were working toward a bigger goal at Santa Margarita High Tuesday--the state final--the competition was less intense.

“We were really expecting it to be really difficult, so we prepared ourselves like that,” said Kiki Maroutsos, who had seven kills for the Eagles before Coach Eddie Rapp brought on his reserves in the third game. “It was kind of hard playing a five-game [match] then coming back here and doing [this].”

The Eagles played flawlessly, limiting the Rangers’ top hitters, Amy Goulding and Ynez Carrasco, to seven and five kills. Goulding has orally committed to Utah State and Carrasco to Santa Clara.

Redwood (17-2) lost to Bakersfield Stockdale in the Central Section Division II final.

“They are [Central Section] finalists. We just took care of the passing and the serving and that’s what controlled the match,” Rapp said. “We played really well.”

Santa Margarita took an 8-2 lead in the first game and never looked back. Sabrina King led the Eagles with 11 kills.

She also served three consecutive aces in the third game to put the match out of reach, 10-1.

“I was hoping that we would come in confident and not too confident,” Rapp said.

Santa Margarita will need all its confidence in the next round on Saturday at top-seeded Huntington Beach (21-2), which won the Southern Section Division II-AA title.

Oiler co-Coach Rocky Ciarelli coached Rapp when Rapp was a sophomore at Edison High in 1983.

“Hopefully, I can make Rocky proud,” Rapp said.

In another Division II Southern Regional match:

Huntington Beach 3, Santee West Hills 0--Lori Daedlow had 13 kills for the host Oilers (20-2), who won, 15-6, 15-9, 15-11.

In Division I:

Fountain Valley 3, Vista Rancho Buena Vista 0--Fifth-seeded Fountain Valley won, 15-9, 15-7, 15-9. Summer Altice had 13 kills and Larissa Carter had 12 for the Barons (19-2), who advances to play Bakersfield Centennial, a 15-6, 15-5, 15-5 winner over Capistrano Valley.

Laguna Beach 3, Bakersfield 0--Laguna Beach had little trouble in winning, 15-2, 15-12, 15-3.

Liz Belloni led the Artists with 14 kills. Caroline Kattell had 42 assists for Laguna Beach (23-2).

In Division IV:

Calvary Chapel 3, La Jolla The Bishop 1--Calvary Chapel lost the first game, 4-15, but came back to win the next three, 15-13, 15-11, 15-6. Jill Overby had 12 kills and T.J. Gause 10 for the Eagles (15-4).