Piggott-less Sea Kings no match for Eagles

CORONA DEL MAR — Juliane Piggott half smiled as the Santa Margarita High volleyball team filed out of the Corona del Mar gym Wednesday.

Half of her is staying positive, though the bruised meniscus and muscles in her knee have yet to heal from an injury she sustained nearly two weeks ago.

The other half that couldn’t smile was the competitor, who just watched Santa Margarita, ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division I-A, leave a 25-22, 25-22, 25-20 winner. She couldn’t do a thing to prevent it.

“It’s tough sitting,” the 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter said. “It’s a bummer. But it is what it is.”

All Piggott hopes it is, is an injury that will sideline her through nearly the rest of the regular season. She plans to be back for the final regular-season match next Friday against Back Bay rival Newport Harbor.

“It’s really frustrating and aggravating being my senior year,” Piggott said.

In the five matches prior to the injury, Piggott had averaged nearly 19 kills per match. Still there were opportunities for the Sea Kings, ranked No. 1 in Division II-A, to topple the Eagles.

“We definitely miss her,” said senior middle blocker Kasey Kipp, who had a team-high 13 kills. “I think we could have won though. We were really pumped up. We were fired up for this match.”

In the grand scheme of things, the result of the match did not matter as much as others, because the two teams are not in the same league or division. But senior outside hitter Kelly Christian, who had 10 kills, 12 assists and four aces, said it was a missed opportunity for the Sea Kings to beat one of the top teams in Orange County.

The loss snapped a 10-match win streak for the Sea Kings, who have already sewn up the Pacific Coast League title, but that could be a positive, Kipp said.

“I think it will help us,” Kipp said. “We’ve been winning a lot and we forgot what it was like to lose. It was tough, but it will just make us stronger.”

It was the teams’ second meeting of the season, the first a scrimmage went Corona del Mar’s way in five games. Sea Kings Coach Bill Christiansen said the importance of the match was in the team improving, not the result.

“It’s a nice rivalry,” said Christiansen, who has scheduled Santa Margarita each of his 10 years as coach. “They have a great team. It was a good match. We were respectable out there.”

Christiansen said this year’s Sea Kings are one of the top three teams he has had; the other two in 1997 and 2004 won section titles.

“They play together as a team and that’s the main thing,” Christiansen said. “They work extremely hard.”

The Sea Kings trailed for the majority of the first game. But facing game point at 24-18, Corona del Mar rallied with four consecutive points to cut the lead to 24-22, before a service error ended the game.

“It’s very hard to come back on them,” Christiansen said. “They’re very consistent.”

Corona del Mar was forced to rally in the second game as well. Two consecutive kills from Kipp cut the lead to 23-22, but two straight errors ended the game.

After a league match at Irvine today, the Sea Kings will head to Santa Barbara for the Tournament of Champions.

“We have a long week ahead of us,” Christian said. “It is one of the biggest weeks of the year. We have to keep going forward. There will be a lot of good teams in Santa Barbara. It’s a good test for us.”

Junior Jamie Lawson had 13 assists, senior Shannon Johnson had 14 digs, junior Kara Chatham had eight kills and one block and freshman Madison Smith had nine digs.