High School Roundup: Trio rally for wins in girls’ volleyball

Survive and advance. That’s the mantra of teams at this time of the fall athletic season.

In the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division girls’ volleyball playoffs Tuesday, Huntington Beach, Edison and Ocean View, did just that.

Huntington rallied from an 0-2 deficit against Temecula Valley to come away with a 21-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 15-4 victory over the visiting Golden Bears in Division 1AA. Edison broke away from a 1-1 tie with visiting Rolling Hills Estate Peninsula to score a 25-22, 16-25, 25-22, 25-18 in another 1AA match. Ocean View came back from an 0-1 hole to down visiting Westminster La Quinta, 22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-23, in Division 4AA.

The victories advance the three locals teams to second-round matches at 7 p.m. Thursday.

In Huntington’s win over Temecula Valley (Southwestern League at-large), Cami Sanchez had 25 kills and 18 digs, Kierra Pearson 17 kills, Maddie Kaprelyan 14 kills, Hanna Russell 11 kills, and Rachel Hall 56 assists.

“We had an extremely slow start,” Huntington Coach Craig Pazanti said. “We just weren’t passing the ball very well, and that will get us in trouble. However, after falling behind 2-0, this team showed a tremendous amount of resilience to come back and still get a victory. I am super proud of the fight these girls had tonight. We will need a much better effort Thursday, if we plan on advancing to the quarterfinals.”

Sunset League champion Huntington, ranked sixth in Division 1AA, improved to 28-4. The Oilers are on the road for their second-round match Thursday and travel to Studio City to face Harvard-Westlake (Mission League No. 3).

The Wolverines defeated Lakewood St. Joseph, 3-2, in a first-round match Tuesday.

“We played Harvard/Westlake in one of our first matches of the season,” said Pazanti, whose Oilers swept that Sept. 5 match. “They are a well-coached team, and I know they will be prepared Thursday night. I just hope we can come out aggressive on the road and play our style of volleyball. If we can do that, I like our chances.”

Cassidy Dennison had 16 kills and Emilie Austin 45 assists for Edison in its 3-1 win over Peninsula (Bay League No. 3).

The Chargers, runner-up in the Sunset League and the No. 8 team in Division 1AA, won its 20th match in moving to 20-9.

“This is a good win for us against a very good Peninsula team,” Edison Coach Matt Skolnik said. “Our serving and team defense really led us to this victory.”

The win advances Edison to a Thursday home match with Pacific Coast League champion and seventh-ranked Corona del Mar which won by sweep Tuesday over Long Beach Wilson (Moore League No. 3).

“Corona del Mar is a very good team and we will have to play our best if we want to advance to the quarterfinals,” Skolnik said.

Ocean View, the second-place team from the Golden West League, plays a Round 2 match Thursday at the top-seeded team in Division 4AA, Thousand Oaks La Reina (Tri-Valley League champion). The Regents swept Carson California Academy of Math and Science Tuesday.

Divisional quarterfinals are Saturday and semifinal matches Tuesday.

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Boys’ Water Polo

Ocean View, the No. 2 team from the Golden West League and ninth-ranked team in CIF-SS Division 6, opened postseason play Tuesday and defeated Cypress (Empire League No. 3), 10-7, in a wild-card game. The win advanced the Seahawks to a first-round match Thursday at Mountain Pass League champion Beaumont.

Sunset League champion and fifth-ranked Huntington Beach, a Division 1 semifinalist last year, took on Long Beach Millikan (Moore League No. 3) in a first-round match Wednesday. The score wasn’t available at press time.

Winners from Thursday’s play advance to the quarterfinal round Saturday. Division semifinals are Wednesday.

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Cross-Country

Cassie Durgy of Huntington Beach won the girls’ varsity individual title, and the Oilers’ boys’ varsity team successfully defended its title by winning a championship at the Sunset League Championships at Central Park in Huntington Beach.

Durgy, a senior, won the girls’ varsity title with a time of 18 minutes, and teammate Jasmine Mayr (18:28.6) placed third. Other top-10 finishes went to Madeline Fox of Marina (18:37.1, fourth), Taylor Pennington of Edison (18:41.4, fifth), Lauren Hamel of Edison (18:43.2, sixth), and Kayla Boehm of Edison (18:59.7, 10th).

Edison won the girls’ varsity title. Fountain Valley was fourth, Huntington fifth and Marina sixth.

Huntington’s varsity boys repeated as Sunset champion, the first time the program has accomplished the feat since 1985-86, Huntington Coach Kareen Nilsson Shackelford said.

For the Oilers, Alekos Mitchel (15:22.3) was fourth, Elijah Orr (15:33.7) fifth, Chris Pai (15:43.6) seventh, Aaron Finkley (15:55.9) 10th, Tyler Rule (15:57.0) 11th, Prescott Leatherwood (16:01.8) 13th, and Lars Mitchel (17:13.4) was 39th.

Other top-10 boys’ finishes: William Hua (Fountain Valley, 15:17.0, second), Gus Weiss (Edison, 15:21.8, third), Tyler Bond (Edison, 15:43.5, sixth), Kenny Jones (Marina, 15:47.7, ninth).

In the boys’ varsity team standings, Edison was third, Fountain Valley fourth and Marina fifth.

“For the girls’ side, our talented individuals continue to push themselves forward to success,” Shackelford said. “Our boys’ team has really developed over the past year, with an emphasis on running as a pack, training together, and finding the competitive edge that makes them mentally and physically ready to compete with the elite teams in Southern Section.”

The CIF Southern Section Cross-Country Championships prelims meet is Saturday at Riverside Golf Course in Riverside. All division finals are Nov. 21 at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut. The 26th annual CIF State Championship Meet is Nov. 28 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

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Girls’ Golf

Marina junior Brittney Do competed Nov. 5 at the CIF-SS Individual Finals at Western Hills Country Club in Chino and shot 82 and finished tied for 57th place. The other Sunset League competitor in the tournament, senior Grace Ferrell of Newport Harbor, shot 78. A score of 77 was needed to advance to Thursday’s CIF/WSCGA Southern State Regional.

At the CIF-SS Southern Division Team Championships Nov. 2 at Lakewood Country Club (par 74), Marina (442 team score) finished in seventh, Huntington Beach (449 team score) was 15th and Edison (453 team score) 17th in the team standings.

Marina scores: Brittney Do, 74; Angela Wu, 82; Zahraa Hijara, 85; Brianna Byerley, 85; Jillian Oliver, 96; Christine Rice, 98.

Huntington Beach scores: Ella Poljak, 86; Abby Cahill, 90; Ghislaine Jumoville, 92; Dylin Myers, 93; Caitlyn Nickerson, 93; Alyssa Fogleman (88).

Edison scores: Meah Collins, 83; Pilar Hurtado, 89; Olivia Mills, 93; Heather Harris, 93; Kaitlyn Haplin, 95; Rachel Abboud, 116.

CIF-SS Southern Division Team Championship standings: 1. La Serna; 2. Corona del Mar; 3. University; 4. Beckman; 5. San Clemente; 6. Cerritos; 7. Marina; 8. Trabuco Hills; 9. Valencia/Placentia; 10. Aliso Niguel; 11. San Juan Hills; 12. Newport Harbor; 13. Long Beach Wilson; 14. Los Alamitos; 15. Huntington Beach; 16. Tesoro; 17. Edison; 18. Dana Hills; 19. Cypress; 20. Laguna Beach.

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Baseball

Marina senior Riley Ohl, a right-handed pitcher, has committed to the University of Nevada and was to sign a National Letter of Intent Wednesday, Marina baseball Coach Bob Marshall confirmed.