Sailing Off With More Championships

Newport Harbor senior April Ross contemplated how to spend her cherished two-week break between the high school and club volleyball seasons and she came up with this:

“Well, I haven’t been snowboarding in a while. . . .” Ross said.

Coaches at USC and the Orange County Volleyball Club can begin cringing.

Ross, the 6-foot-1 all-everything player who has committed to USC, wants to relax after helping Newport Harbor win a second consecutive state title and an unprecedented third consecutive Southern Section Division I-AA championship.

With those accomplishments, it’s not surprising that Ross is The Times’ Orange County girls’ volleyball player of the year for the second consecutive season.

Although Ross may be remembered most for her championship record, those end results weren’t what she treasures most.

“Winning never gets old,” Ross said. “But the way I look at it, winning state or a third CIF title this season, I didn’t see that as a defining moment for my career at Newport Harbor. The journey is better than the ending.

“It’s all about the training, the weightlifting, the trips, tournaments, everything.”

And Ross did just about everything this season, helping the Sailors finish 26-1 by playing every position and cajoling her teammates into another championship effort.

“Winning it all again didn’t seem realistic at the beginning of the season,” Ross said, “especially losing Jennifer Carey [now the starting setter at Hawaii] and the other seniors. But it wasn’t hard to get fired up.

“It was more of a challenge to win again. We lost three starters, had a sophomore setter and had to build up from that. I’ve never been on a team with this much togetherness, this much chemistry.”

Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn said having Ross as a catalyst didn’t hurt.

Glenn said Ross has the ability to play outside hitter, middle blocker or setter when she reaches college, so why not now? So Ross, who began her high school career as a middle blocker and played outside hitter the past two seasons, played some at setter this season.

A perfect display of that versatility came in the Division I state semifinals. Newport Harbor trailed Fresno Bullard two games to one and Glenn shuffled the lineup, having Ross set when she was in the back row.

The last time the Sailors used that lineup was Oct. 30, when they rallied to defeat Mountain View St. Francis in five games in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions final.

“April hadn’t set for a month,” Glenn said. “Then you’re in the state semis and boom, you’re setting. We hadn’t practiced recently with that lineup, but she does a nice job and we came back and won.

“To have that ability to go in there and play that well in that situation says a lot about her.”

And there are plenty of Ross stories.

Newport Harbor avenged its only best-of-five loss by defeating Mater Dei in the state Division I quarterfinals. But the victory was less than routine.

“We lose the first game,” Mater Dei Coach Craig Pazanti said, “but we go up 14-7 in the second game. So April goes back and jump-serves for three straight points, they get a little fired up and end up winning the game and the match.

“She was always a factor in the match, wherever she was. When crunch time came and everyone was at their best, April still had another level to go to. Everyone in the gym would know she was getting the ball, but she would find a way to put it down.”

Ross’ record reflects that dogged determination and will to win.

In four years on the Newport Harbor varsity, her teams went 27-2 in the playoffs, the two blemishes a five-game loss to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the 1996 section Division I-AA semifinals and a five-game loss in 1997 to Division I state champion Marina in the state quarterfinals.

Ross’ teams won five of the seven postseason tournaments they entered and also won four league titles. The Sailors were 38-0 in league matches during those four seasons, an impressive mark considering the strength of the Sea View League.

That league record included six victories over former league rivals Santa Margarita and Corona del Mar, who combined for four Southern Section championships from 1996-98 before leaving the league this season.

“April has done some impressive things,” Glenn said. “But I think her best volleyball is ahead of her.”