Edison girls’ volleyball rallies past St. Margaret’s, advances to CIF Division 3 quarterfinals

Edison dropped the first set and was in danger of falling two sets behind visiting St. Margaret’s in a CIF Southern Section girls’ volleyball playoff showdown when Maya Shihadeh got the call.

The senior opposite took command, leading the fourth-seeded Chargers to eight of the next nine points to even the match.

The Wave League champions rode outstanding defense, passing and serving and a strong game at the net to pull out a tight 16-25, 25-22, 25-17, 28-26 win Saturday night and advance into the Division 3 quarterfinals, the furthest the program has advanced in six years.

Junior outside hitter Adia McCown delivered 22 kills, including the final two in a dramatic fourth set, and senior libero Makenna Jackson led the defensive effort as Edison (21-16) claimed an emotional triumph.

Their reward is a home game Wednesday against Long Beach Wilson (20-10), which swept fifth-seeded Phelan Serrano (23-1).

Shihadeh, who delivered six of her 11 kills in the late run to win the second set, changed the game’s momentum, and the taller Chargers were in charge through the third set and most of the fourth before staving off a late rally by St. Margaret’s (27-8).

“I didn’t want our season to end,” Shihadeh said. “I wanted to keep playing because I think our team can really do something in CIF. I think we can win. If we’d lost that set, the momentum would have kept going down, and I wanted to win.”

To do so, Edison had to overcome the Orange Coast League champion’s strong play at the net, led by senior Brady Moseley‘s 25 kills, eight of them as the Tartans went on a 14-2 run to finish off the first set and five more as they grabbed a 15-11 advantage in the second set.

The Chargers rallied behind Molly McCluskey’s service to surge ahead, then watched St. Margaret’s open a 21-17 edge as Mimi Spangler, brought up from the junior varsity team, delivered three successive aces. Shihadeh, who had been coming off the bench to serve before stepping in for Summer Witherby during that sequence, then stepped forward.

“Maya, she was on today,” said Jackson, whose father, Trent, is one of Edison’s co-head coaches. “She brought so much energy, and we were able to dig deep and come back to win that, and that got momentum started.”

Edison opened quick 6-2, 10-5 and 15-7 leads to romp in the third set, then jumped to an 11-4 advantage in the fourth before the Tartans used 6-0 and 6-1 runs to pull even at 20. Edison had to stave off two set points — with McCown hitting through a block to forge a 25-25 tie and Moseley hitting long to make it 26-26.

McCown finished from the left to put Edison ahead, then spiked through a block at the net to start the Chargers’ celebration.

McCluskey added 10 kills and 19 digs, Jackson had 13 digs and two aces, Morgan Gillinger made six blocks, and setters Sophie Vienna and Megan Fitzmorris each had 23 assists.

“One thing I love about this team is it’s a collective team, and this was such a great collective win,” said co-head coach Colleen Burke, an All-CIF selection the last time Edison won a Southern Section title, in 2004. “It took all of us. [St. Margaret’s] was hitting hard and challenging us, and those were long, grueling, emotional rallies.”

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