Girls volleyball: Laguna Beach stuns sloppy Sailors

Tony Altobelli

LAGUNA BEACH - The toughest opponent for the Newport Harbor High

girls volleyball team was itself in Tuesday night’s 15-10, 15-6, 12-15, 15-7 loss to host Laguna Beach in both teams’ season-opener.

“At this point in the season, Laguna Beach is a better team than we

are,” Coach Dan Glenn said. “Right now we need to get better in all areas

of our game. That’s why it’s good to play tough teams like Laguna Beach

because then we know what we need to work on.”

Junior Christine Woller led the Sailors, ranked No. 1 in CIF Southern

Section Division I-A, with 12 kills, while senior Taylor Govaars chipped

in with 10.

“Taylor and Christine played well for us, but we have to do a better

job of getting the ball to them,” Glenn said. “Our passing was not very

good tonight and that’s a big item that we need to improve.”

Laguna Beach, ranked No. 2 in Division IV-AA, looked like the Sailors

of last year, dominating the match with size and power.

Sarah Salem led the Artists with 17 kills, while Cassie Jones followed

with 12.

“I was worried about my scheduling decision when I agreed to this

one,” Artists Coach Sean Patchell said. “It was a good start for us.”

After dropping the first two games, the Sailors turned up the

intensity early and took a 7-1 lead in Game 3.

Laguna Beach rallied behind Salem and pulled even with Newport at

10-10.

At 11-11, a Laguna Beach error, a kill by Govaars and an ace by junior

Katie King gave Newport a 14-11 lead.

After a couple of missed opportunities to put the game away, Govaars

hit a service winner to close it out, 15-12.

“Even in the winning game, we made too many mistakes,” Glenn said. “We

didn’t serve too well and we didn’t have a lot of intensity when we tried

to put the game away.”

Next up for Newport is the Dave Mohs Memorial Tournament with tough

competition to learn off of.

“Right now it’s not about winning and losing,” Glenn said. “It’s about

getting better by learning from our mistakes.”