Girls’ Volleyball: Local trio is CIF State bound

The scene usually plays out the same after a loss in the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Players break down and cry, believing their season ended.

It happened to the Huntington Beach High, Edison and Sage Hill programs on the road. The Oilers and Chargers bowed out in the Division 1 quarterfinals on Nov. 5, while Sage Hill exited in the Division 3 semifinals three days later.

Each coach had to remind their teams that there was a good chance they would play again this year. They were right. The season is not over for Huntington Beach, Edison and Sage Hill.

The Oilers, Chargers and Lightning made the CIF State tournament on Sunday. Huntington Beach and Edison earned the top two seeds in the Southern California Regional Division I playoffs and the Lightning the No. 6 seed in the SoCal Regional Division II playoffs. The opening round starts Wednesday at 7 p.m., and the three local teams are each at home.

Huntington Beach (29-4) plays No. 16 Palisades (27-8), Edison (31-8) meets No. 15 Granada Hills (24-6), and Sage Hill (23-12) has No. 11 Claremont (20-8).

“I am excited for a second chance to win a CIF championship. You will rarely get an opportunity like this,” said Edison Coach Matt Skolnik, whose top players are outside hitter Hannah Phair, libero Dani Dennison, outside hitter Cassidy Dennison and setter Lindsey Sparks. “As for [getting] the No. 2 seed, it will be nice to have home [matches]. All of the teams in the Division I bracket are very good.

“Granada Hills is the champion coming out of the [Los Angeles] City Section [Open Division].”

The team Granada Hills defeated in the L.A. City Section Open Division final is Huntington Beach’s first-round opponent in state.

Huntington Beach Coach Craig Pazanti said he doesn’t know much about Palisades, but one thing he’s sure about is the luxury of receiving the top seed.

“The longer we win the more we get to play at home,” Pazanti said. “[State is] a little different than the CIF [Southern Section playoffs]. We’ll get a chance to play at home as long as we keep winning [because we’re the higher seed]. They don’t worry about coin flips or anything like that [in state], or the number of home matches [you’ve played].”

The only time the Oilers wouldn’t get to play at home is if they make the state final on Dec. 2. Santiago Canyon College in Orange is the site of the championship.

If things go according to plan, to get to the state final, the Oilers would have to get through Sunset League rival Edison in the SoCal Regional Division I final. The Oilers and Chargers shared the league crown, splitting their two league contests.

“We both kind of had our sights on going a little further in the CIF [Southern Section] bracket,” said Pazanti, who saw his No. 4-seeded team get upset by Long Beach Poly in five sets, while the Chargers lost to No. 3 Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in four sets. “But it does give us some life to kind of come back. You mourn the loss a little bit, but at the same time try to refocus and try to put together one more deep run.”

Out of the three area teams in the state tournament, only Huntington Beach has reached the state finals, doing so twice.

The Oilers last played for a state crown 20 years ago, winning it under Coach Rocky Ciarelli. Pazanti barely missed out on the state championship run in 1996. The year before, he served as an assistant under Ciarelli. Pazanti left to become an assistant coach with the Baylor University women’s volleyball team.

Pazanti has the talent to guide the Oilers, who feature outside hitter Cami Sanchez, opposites Anna Carroll and Jillian Kim and middle blocker Julia Jackson, to a state crown.

“I told them it’s never good to finish on a loss,” Pazanti said. “We took a couple of days off after that loss [to Long Beach Poly] and just kind refocused. We got back to work just in case [we made state]. We did practice last week, hoping we would get the call on Sunday.”

Sage Hill Coach Dan Thomassen said he expected his program to make its fifth appearance in the state tournament. While he was devastated that his team was unable to advance to the section finals for the fifth time in six years, Thomassen told his girls to prepare for state.

Sage Hill has had recent success in state, going as far as the SoCal Regional Division III finals in 2014 and ’13. Getting out of the opening round will be tougher this year.

Sage Hill has Claremont, which is from the Palomares League, home to Glendora. Sage Hill almost met Glendora in the section finals, but it could not close out Lakewood St. Joseph in the semifinals.

“It was kind of a bittersweet night,” said Thomassen, whose team won the first two sets against St. Joseph, only to see the Jesters rally to win in five sets to move on to the section finale to face Glendora. “We really wanted our seniors [Jamie Dailey, Sarah Lowey, Sahar Rohani and Stephanie Morris] to get a chance to walk out and represent Sage in another CIF final, so that was pretty bitter. But [we have] the chance to do something special in the state tournament. Not many people get these opportunities. Our girls really, really appreciate and worked hard to get this opportunity.”