First Time Is Sweet for Teams

Long Beach Wilson, San Clemente, Santa Ana Mater Dei and L.A. Marymount high schools have had seasons of success in girls’ volleyball, even winning a league title here and there. But none had won a Southern Section championship until all four did it Saturday.

Each of the first-time winners seemed to have a story line all its own.

Wilson (24-7), which won the Division I-AA title, had lost to Long Beach Poly three times during the regular season--twice in Moore League play and in a tournament at Las Vegas--but rallied from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Jackrabbits in five games at Cypress College.

The comeback started with a simple statement from Coach Susan Pescar before the third game.

“I told them we were going to win the next three games,” Pescar said.

The quest for San Clemente (32-3) started after a five-game loss to Poly in the I-AA championship last year.

The Tritons stormed past Lake Forest El Toro in three games to win the I-A championship.

Mater Dei (31-3) had twice as many reasons as San Clemente to win this season. The Monarchs lost in the I-A final the last two seasons, but swept Newport Beach Newport Harbor to win this year’s II-A championship.

Marymount (27-4) lost to Thousand Oaks La Reina in the IV-AA championship last season, but came back to win the IV state championship two weeks later.

Still, the Sailors wanted to win their first section championship, which they did in four games against Laguna Beach.

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The four other section champions seem to make every season a banner year.

Manhattan Beach Mira Costa (29-5) won its 11th section championship and North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (17-2) won its fifth. Hemet Baptist Christian (23-2) won its fourth consecutive V-A title and Hesperia Christian (18-2) won its third section championship since 1995.

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State playoffs begin tonight in the five divisions.

In Division I, San Diego Torrey Pines (31-1) is the top-ranked team in the state and the top-seeded team in the eight-team Southern regional. San Clemente is seeded No. 3 in the regional.

In Division II, Mountain View St. Francis (26-2) is ranked No. 2 in the state and is seeded No. 1 in the Northern regional. Mater Dei is seeded No. 1 and Mira Costa is seeded No. 2 in the South.

State championship matches for the five divisions will be Dec. 1 at Cypress College.