Newport Harbor Wins State Title

The Newport Harbor girls’ volleyball team finally met its match, but the Sailors responded like champions and defeated Stockton Lincoln, 15-11, 16-18, 15-5, 19-17, to win the state Division I title Saturday at Cypress College.

Lincoln, the Northern California champion, wasn’t given much of a chance by many observers. Newport Harbor, winners of three state titles and playing in its sixth final, is well known as a volleyball power; Lincoln, in its first, is not and the Trojan players felt they were being overlooked.

“You could tell everybody at the banquet Friday night was thinking ‘Who is Lincoln?,” middle blocker Adriana Ruhl said. “Hopefully we made a name for ourselves tonight.”

They certainly got the Sailors’ attention.

“They were a great opponent and this was an amazing win,” said Newport Harbor setter Jennifer Carey, who was named the most valuable player of the title match. “This match I think had everyone about to have a heart attack. It was pretty tense for a while.”

Lincoln (39-2) nearly forced a fifth game. The Trojans served for six game points and fought off two Newport Harbor match points in Game 4, before the Sailors reached deeper.

Down, 17-16, Newport took the lead on two points by April Ross. Ross, who had a match-high 28 kills and also had 13 digs and seven blocks, had a kill to tie it, 17-17, and a block for 18-17. Lincoln’s Molly Mordaunt hit wide on the next point to give the Sailors the championship.

“It could have gone either way,” said Carey, a senior setter who had 54 assists, eight kills and a match-high 17 digs, “but we played really tough at the end.”

Unlike most of Newport Harbor’s postseason opponents, Lincoln was every bit the Sailors’ match athletically. Other teams couldn’t find a solution to the Sailors four best and biggest players--Ross (6 feet 1), Carey (6-1), Krista Dill (6-2) and Kathy Lavold (6-2).

Although Carey and Ross were effective and Dill and Lavold each had 13 kills, Lincoln had plenty of answers.

Suzanne Escabar had 19 kills, Nicole Davis had 16, Ruhl had 14 and Julie Erbez had 12. And defensively, Lincoln was taking Newport out of its game.

“I was thinking about changing our lineup if it went to a fifth game,” Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn said. “But I’m not sure what good it would have done. They were outdigging us and outplaying us in a lot of ways.”

But the Sailors (27-0) hung on when it was necessary. They won the first game without much trouble, 15-11, scoring the final two points on an ace by Ross and a hitting error by Lincoln.

Lincoln rallied to win the second game, becoming the first team to take a game off the Sailors in the postseason. Newport led the game, 13-9, but couldn’t put it away as Lincoln came back and then held on for the 18-16 win.

Newport scored the final eight points of Game 3 to win, 15-5, setting up the thrilling fourth.