Esperanza Reaches Regional Final

Anaheim Esperanza advanced to the Southern California Regional final of the state girls’ volleyball playoffs for the first time Saturday night.

Senior opposite hitter Ashley Engle collected 33 kills and junior middle blocker Christy Hudson added 12 kills to help the second-seeded Aztecs come from behind to defeat fifth-seeded Lake Forest El Toro, 18-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-21, in a Division I regional semifinal at Esperanza.

In the regional final Tuesday night, the Aztecs (30-4) will visit top-seeded Los Alamitos, a 25-21, 25-20, 25-12 winner over Carlsbad La Costa Canyon in the other semifinal. Two of Esperanza’s losses this season came against the Griffins (30-3) in Sunset League play.

Another loss came against El Toro (24-6) in the final match of the Orange County Championships, and after the first game Saturday, the Aztecs might have been saddled with another loss to the Chargers if they hadn’t responded over the last three games. They also dropped the first game en route to a victory in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship match last weekend.

“It’s just kind of the thing we always do,” Hudson said. “That’s just our warm-up game. We take a little while to get going, I guess, and get all the nerves out.”

Engle got the Aztecs on track with 11 kills in the second game. Esperanza broke a 13-13 tie to win a close third game and took the back-and-forth final game after El Toro rallied from a 13-10 deficit. The Chargers appeared to have pulled to within 22-21, but a reversal of a lift call gave the Aztecs a 23-20 lead instead.

Jackie Albright finished with 19 kills and 10 digs to lead the Chargers, who had advanced to regional semifinals for the first time.

Lauren Peterson

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In other matches:

* Rebecca Saraceno, a senior middle blocker, had 28 kills, 12 digs and six blocks, and Amy Mosebar had a career-high 13 kills to lead Redondo to a 25-21, 20-25, 30-28, 25-19 victory over host Clovis in Division II.

* Dicey McGraw, a junior outside hitter, had 27 kills to lead host Santa Margarita to a 25-17, 22-25, 25-13, 16-25, 15-11 victory over San Diego Cathedral in Division III.

* Cassie Ells had 11 kills and 12 blocks for defending state champion Lake Arrowhead Rim of the World in a 25-13, 25-16, 25-13 victory over visiting North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake in Division III.