Mater Dei Gets Lift From Upset Win

Santa Ana Mater Dei setter Ashley Magsanide could wait to sleep. She wanted to savor the victory.

She had reason to do so Thursday night after the Monarchs’ 25-19, 25-23, 25-27, 20-25, 15-12 home victory over Los Alamitos, the No. 1-ranked team in the Southern Section Division I-A coaches’ poll.

“I couldn’t fall asleep last night,” said Magsanide, a senior who finished with a season-high 58 assists.

“I think we’re all kind of like zombies today at school, but we had so much fun last night. It was just awesome to have such a good result.”

The Monarchs (8-2), ranked second in Division II-AA, lost to Los Alamitos, 25-20, 25-22, in the quarterfinals of the Las Vegas Durango tournament last weekend but now hope to build on Thursday’s success.

They can start tonight in a nonleague match at Newport Harbor.

“I think it gave us a lot more confidence for the whole season,” said senior outside hitter Chelsea Pavlik, who finished with a career-high 29 kills and helped the Monarchs jump out to a two-game lead against the Griffins (10-2).

Mater Dei won the decisive fifth game with the help of outside hitter Taylor Carroll, who wound up with 14 kills.

Girls’ volleyball is a sport for everyone at Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep.

The private school of 81 students includes 40 girls, all of whom are involved in the volleyball program either as a player or team manager.

The Kares have four teams -- a varsity squad, two junior-varsity teams and a freshman team -- allowing players of varying skill levels to participate. Each team has two to four student managers, insuring a place for everyone, on some level.

“Every single girl does volleyball,” said Kim Parker, in her sixth season as the varsity coach. “It’s a way that we give everybody an opportunity to be part of a team sport. It works for volleyball.”

Usually, it works well.

The Kares won Southern Section Division V-A championships in 2002 and 2003. They failed to qualify for the playoffs last season but hope to turn things around this year.

“I think we’ve done great considering our size,” Parker said of the school’s enrollment.

“The challenge for us is getting to the playoffs. If we get to the playoffs, we do well because we’re in a small division.”

Behind the play of junior outside hitter Kristian Llamas and senior defensive specialist Michele Esguerra, Rio Hondo Prep (6-1, 1-1) opened the season with six consecutive victories before falling to Pasadena Mayfield in a Prep League match Thursday.

Lauren Peterson

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Boys’ Water Polo

Senior Scott Schauer scored the winning goal 46 seconds into the second overtime to lift Anaheim Servite to a 3-2 victory over Santa Ana Foothill in a pool-play game of the South Coast tournament.

The Friars (4-1), ranked No. 2 in the Southern Section Division II coaches’ poll, tied the score, 3-3, with 11 seconds left in regulation on senior Daniel Garcia’s two-meter goal. Junior goalkeeper Andrew Mesesan finished with 11 saves for Servite.

Senior goalie Travis Stachowski had 16 saves for Foothill (3-2), the No. 2-ranked team in Division I.

The tournament concludes today with the championship match at 4 p.m. at Newport Harbor. Semifinals are at 10:40 and 11:45 a.m. The tournament resumes at 8:30 this morning at four sites: Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley and Tustin.

Basketball

Brad Sweezy, a 6-foot-6 forward from Huntington Beach Ocean View, has committed to Loyola Marymount.

Eric Sondheimer

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Girls’ Tennis

With loyalties torn between two teams, Bowie Hahn rooted for neither one.

Hahn, the coach of the Thousand Oaks La Reina and Agoura girls’ tennis teams, opted to watch as the Regents defeated the Chargers, 10-8, in a nonleague match Sept. 15 at Agoura.

“I told both my teams I just wasn’t going to say anything while the matches were going on,” Hahn said. “I mean, I cheered, but I just felt like during the course of the match, it was important that I didn’t have any undue influence on the results.”

“It wouldn’t have been fair,” said Hahn, a second-year coach at La Reina who took over the Agoura girls’ team this fall after coaching the Agoura boys last spring.

Instead, any instruction and direction of players was left to co-coaches Julian Tristan for Agoura and Joan Petrone for La Reina.

Hahn, owner of the Pacific Tennis Club in Westlake Village and Net Results, a tennis retail store in Calabasas, coached the California Lutheran women’s tennis team before starting at La Reina last year.

“It’s basically just management of time,” Hahn said. “It’s crazy, but it’s fun.”

-- Lauren Peterson