Sailors survive in five

DANA POINT — After claiming the first game, the Dana Hills High girls’ volleyball team rushed into an office, getting away from the noise.

The home team couldn’t even handle the racket.

Newport Harbor just switched sides like teams usually do between games, but now players worried more than just picking up their belongings. The noise was deafening. Earplugs were no good.

The Dolphins’ gym erupted. If the Sailors had it their way, they would’ve locked in the Dolphins so they couldn’t return to the court to continue the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinal match Saturday night.

Did the No. 4-seeded Sailors expect the third-place team from the South Coast League to be so combative? The Dolphins were and they never went away.

After each game it fled into the office, except after forcing a decisive fifth game. Dana Hills stood around, and finally Newport Harbor caught the Dolphins, escaping to the semifinals with a 19-25, 25-14, 25-21, 22-25, 15-13 victory.

As fans congratulated Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn, his eyes were wide and big. The longtime coach figured his Sailors (26-3) were in a dangerous match.

“They’re not a third-place team,” he said. “I was a little disappointed in how we started. We made a couple unforced errors and then they got some confidence, the crowd got into it and I knew we were in trouble. But we hung in there.”

Next for Newport Harbor is a Tuesday date at Mira Costa (31-0). The Bay League champ against the Sunset League champ, a heavyweight bout in the making. Everyone knows who the favorite is with Mira Costa No. 1 in everything, seed, section, state, nation, you name it.

The Mustangs beat Capistrano Valley, 25-19, 25-12, 25-18, Saturday to advance to the semifinals.

“We’re the underdog,” said Newport Harbor opposite Megan Munce, who remembers losing to Mira Costa in a best two-out-of-three match at the Durango tournament in Las Vegas this season.

The Sailors assume the role belonging to the Dolphins (20-12) in the playoffs if they plan to reach their first section final since 2003, when they lost to Mira Costa. Dana Hills upset Murrieta Valley in the first round and then sixth-ranked Orange Lutheran in the second round. And each match went five games.

So another five was in store against Newport Harbor in the quarterfinals. Glenn wasn’t kidding when he said this one “could’ve gone either way.”

Nine ties in the final game. First to 15 wins and for a moment it appeared with Yale-bound middle blocker Taylor Cramm hammering down one of her 16 kills to give Dana Hills a 12-11 lead that the Dolphins were on the verge of pulling off another shocker.

The crowd got louder, but the Sailors stepped up defensively, stopping outside hitter Felicia Arriola from adding to her match-high 21 kills.

The crowd now started to hear from Munce and the rest of the Sailors. The TCU-bound senior along with middle blocker Alex Penewell put away the match. Munce recorded one of her 20 kills to give the Sailors the lead for good and Penewell’s 12th kill on the night clinched it.

“We were a little nervous,” said Munce, who when she wasn’t blasting kills, outside hitter Jamie Heenan was as the senior contributed 18 kills. “We weren’t prepared to have them dig so well. Now we just got to go out there and be ready for [Mira Costa].”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].