Victory Makes the Eagles Smile

After two games, it looked as if Santa Margarita would win in a laugher over La Jolla in the state Division II girls’ volleyball semifinals Tuesday at Santa Margarita High.

But when La Jolla rallied in Game 3, it wasn’t funny anymore. So the Eagles took care of that--by telling jokes.

The result was a 15-2, 15-1, 8-15, 15-7 victory for Santa Margarita, which advances to its second consecutive Division II state final against Northern California champion Mountain View St. Francis at 5 p.m. Saturday at Cypress College.

It is the second consecutive match that the Eagles (17-4) have cruised in the first two games only to have a third-game letdown and then rally to win in four.

“Sometimes we get a little over-confident,” said Lauren Heri, Santa Margarita hitter. “But we have a lot of ways to get fired up, we have a lot of inside jokes to keep each other loose. Tonight we kept saying ‘ain’t no thing.’ ”

After the third game, it wasn’t much of a thing.

La Jolla led, 2-0, in Game 4 before Heri and Sarah Ballog took over.

The two combined for eight kills during a 10-1 Santa Margarita run that gave the Eagles a 10-3 lead. Heather Schuster, who played a tremendous defensive game, had consecutive aces during the run.

Ballog had 18 kills and six blocks. Heri, who ended the match with a powerful cross-court smash to the right sideline, finished with 18 kills and 13 digs.

“It’s tough getting that big lead,” Eagle Coach Eddie Rapp said. “We were getting some fairly easy points early, but we came back in Game 4 knowing that we weren’t going to get those.”

In Game 3, La Jolla (29-5) began finding holes in the Eagle defense, giving standout Malaika Underwood, who has signed with North Carolina and had four of her 10 kills in the game, her time to shine.

“We’ve been struggling a little in the third games,” Rapp said. “But I think we’ve shown quite a bit of character in bouncing back.”

Ballog had five kills in the first game as the Eagles forged leads of 5-0 and 9-2 before putting away the Vikings.

The second game was even easier. Caitlin Crafts served seven consecutive points to start the second game. Ballog, Heri and Christy Pfrenzinger formed an imposing front-line wall, forcing La Jolla into hitting errors.

“We have an article posted in our locker room about them,” said Heri, who had 18 kills. “It was intimidating, talking about how they all have a lot of kills. But the one thing we picked out of it was that they lost in the semifinals last year on the road so we really thought playing here was an advantage, especially with our crowd.”