Griffins Knock Out Arcadia in Five

Though Los Alamitos finished third in the Sunset League, the Griffins toppled previously unbeaten Arcadia, the Pacific League champion, 15-8, 15-5, 13-15, 7-15, 15-3, in a Southern Section Division I-AA girls’ volleyball second-round playoff match Thursday at Los Alamitos High.

Drue Wawrzynski had 17 kills and 15 digs and Sara Kroneberger had 16 kills and 16 digs for Los Alamitos (15-8), which advanced to play second-seeded San Clemente (16-0) in Saturday’s quarterfinals at a site to be determined.

Erin Bohonus had 25 kills for Arcadia (15-1), which lost its first best-of-five match this season and lost as many games Thursday as it had all season. The Apaches won 71 of their first 74 games.

“We know some teams might have a great record but they might have played easier teams,” Wawrzynski said. “Our record doesn’t look that great, but our league is tough and our coach had us play tough teams before league too.

“It really prepared us for a match like this.”

After Arcadia forced a fifth game, Los Alamitos steadied its passing, and setter Heather Sorich (52 assists) spread the ball around.

Los Alamitos middle blockers Meghan Goria (13 kills, three blocks) and Desari Munjoy (seven kills, five blocks) helped keep Arcadia honest, and after the Apaches pulled to within 6-3, the Griffins scored nine consecutive points to close it out.