La Habra Can’t Overtake St. Francis, Loses in Four

This time, the hill was simply too big to climb.

Mountain View St. Francis, ranked second in the nation by one publication, put La Habra in a two-games-to-none hole before finally closing out the Highlanders, 15-7, 15-3, 14-16, 15-6 to win the state Division II girls’ volleyball championship match Saturday at Cypress College.

Tournament MVP Hayley Anderson, a 6-foot setter who will play at Pacific next season, had 56 assists, seven blocks and seven digs to lead the Lancers (25-0).

La Habra (23-3) rallied from a two-game deficit two weeks ago in the same gym to defeat Lakewood St. Joseph for the Southern Section Division II-A championship. But the Highlanders didn’t have enough firepower for another miraculous rally Saturday.

Middle blocker Kelly Corbett, who will play at Notre Dame, had 16 kills and nine blocks for St. Francis, which did not lose a best-of-five match this season.

The Lancers did lose one best-of-three match, to Louisville (Ky.) Assumption at the Nike Challenge tournament in Chicago Sept. 30. But since then, they have lost only four games.

“We’ve had a fabulous season,” St. Francis Coach Dave Gambelin said. “To lose only four games since then is an amazing feat.”

It was also stunning to see La Habra’s strength, its blocking, neutralized virtually by one player: Anderson.

“She’s a good setter,” La Habra Coach Troy Abbey said. “She’s deceptive and it seemed like we were standing flat on our feet. That was one of the biggest things.”

And St. Francis complemented Anderson’s talent with a different game plan.

“They just started tipping right away,” said La Habra senior Lauren Goins, who had 14 kills. “They were just going around the block.”

St. Francis also kept the pressure on the Highlanders with its serving. La Habra didn’t pass well in the first two games, contributing to 13 hitting errors.

But La Habra turned it around in the third game, jumping to a 10-3 lead before St. Francis crept back into it. USC-bound Keao Burdine, who had 18 kills and 17 digs, had six kills in the game to help the Highlanders win, 16-14, extending the match.

But that was the most noise Burdine and the Highlanders made.

The struggles of sophomore Kristina Baum, a 6-2 middle blocker, typified the night for the Highlanders. She had 11 kills and four blocks, but also seven hitting errors. She hit .093 for the match after hitting .548 in the state semifinals Tuesday.

La Habra had 11 hitting errors in the fourth game, helping St. Francis slowly extend its lead from 5-1 to 10-4, then 14-6. Anderson and Corbett combined to block Burdine twice, for the final side out and final point.

“We made the No. 2 team in the nation work for it,” Abbey said. “I told the girls they have nothing to hang their heads about. They’re the best public school team in Division II.”

In other state championship matches:

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake d. Los Gatos, 15-7, 15-8, 15-7--Courtney Schultz had 18 kills for the Wolverines (27-2), who did not lose a game in four state Division III playoff matches.

L.A. Marymount d. Atherton Menlo, 15-4, 15-10, 15-4--Christina Hinds had 15 kills and Marymount (28-4) rebounded from a loss in the section finals two weeks ago to win in Division IV.

Portola Valley Woodside Priory d. San Diego Francis Parker, 15-11, 15-10, 8-15, 12-15, 15-13--Cassie Perret had 23 kills and nine blocks for the winning Panthers (33-3) in Division V.