Mater Dei Gets a Boost to Top Newport Harbor

Mater Dei, ranked second in Orange County, turned its showdown with third-ranked Newport Harbor into a rout, as the Sailors fell, 15-6, 15-2, 16-14 in a nonleague girls’ volleyball match Wednesday at Mater Dei.

Breegan Mulligan, a junior playing part-time Wednesday because of a sore left foot, hopped off the bench with Mater Dei (5-0) trailing, 13-8, in the third game and helped the Monarchs change the momentum and close out the match.

Mulligan steadied the Monarchs with some solid passing and attacking, scoring four of her 10 kills during a stretch when her team scored eight of the final nine points to win the match in three straight.

“I wasn’t going to put her back in,” Mater Dei Coach Craig Pazanti said. “We were pulling her out when she was in the back row, and we wanted to keep her out.”

Mulligan had rested her ailing foot in Mater Dei’s five-game victory over Los Alamitos Tuesday, but she wanted to help the Monarchs get revenge after they lost to Newport Harbor in the Division I state quarterfinals last season.

“She looked at me [in the third game] and wanted to go,” Pazanti said.

The Monarchs have been on the go for the last six days, playing nearly the equivalent of five five-game matches in that span, including a second-place finish at the grueling Las Vegas Durango tournament last weekend.

But it was Newport Harbor that didn’t look fresh from the start. Mater Dei’s tough serving frustrated the Sailors (1-2), who struggled with their passing, and the Monarchs capitalized.

“We need to pass well to spread the ball around,” Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn said. “When we don’t, we get very predictable.”

Mater Dei’s Kelley Kincheloe had four blocks and Mulligan and Whitney Pavlik (seven kills) each added three to further frustrate the Sailors.

“We’re still in the learning stages,” Glenn said.

And the healing ones, too. The Sailors are still without injured starters, Heather Cullen, an outside hitter with a knee injury who has committed to UCLA; and Christine Wolter, a 6-foot junior opposite out with an ankle injury.

Freshman Alyson Jennings had 11 kills to lead the Sailors and Taylor Govaars added seven.