Girls volleyball: Artists paint PCL title picture

Richard Dunn

LAGUNA BEACH - As if a showdown for first place in the Pacific

Coast League against Corona del Mar High wasn’t enough motivation for

Laguna Beach, the Artists were inspired two weeks ago because of comments

by CdM girls volleyball coach Bill Christiansen.

“If we would’ve played our ‘B’ game, we would’ve beaten them three

straight,” Christiansen said Oct. 9, following Laguna Beach’s victory in

five games at CdM.

There was no letter grade in Thursday’s rematch as host Laguna Beach

defeated the Sea Kings in four games, 15-8, 13-15, 15-11, 15-8, to clinch

at least a tie for the PCL title, but Artists Coach Shawn Patchell said

of his counterpart’s quote:

“The next day I Xeroxed 12 copies of that (article) and blew it up. It

made my job a little easier. It’s not the right thing to say as a coach.”

Meanwhile, Patchell said his team “brought our ‘A’ game again and

showed everybody how we can play consistently,” and, as Christiansen

pointed out, “(the Artists) just outplayed us.”

Brittany Wood, a 6-foot-1 senior, led Laguna Beach with 22 kills and

seven solo blocks, while Duke-bound Sarah Salem, a 6-1 middle blocker,

had 17 kills and five blocks. Setter Leanne Kubisak had 46 assists.

Laguna Beach (14-4, 8-0 in PCL with two matches left), ranked No. 4 in

Orange County, shared the league title with CdM last year. CdM (15-5,

6-2), ranked No. 8 in the county, is the two-time defending PCL champion.

“Laguna Beach played way, way better than it did at Corona del Mar,”

Christiansen said, referring to the Artists’ earlier win. “You’ve got to

give them a lot of credit. They played well.”

CdM, led by Claire Allen (11 kills), Eleanor Mack (10) and UCLA-bound

Morgan Smith (nine), squared the match, 1-1, with a victory in the second

game.

But Laguna Beach rallied from a 10-7 deficit to win the third game by

four points, and carried the momentum into the fourth and decisive game.

The Artists amassed a 9-2 lead in the fourth game, then after a minor

comeback by the Sea Kings, the hosts took advantage of CdM hitting errors

to win easily.

Patchell said the key to his team’s third-game recovery was better

blocking.

After CdM went ahead, 10-7, Laguna Beach scored points on blocks by

Wood (to tie the game, 10-10), Martina Speare (for a 12-10 lead), Wood

again (for a 13-11 edge) and Salem to cap the victory.

“I told the girls not to reach so high on the block,” Patchell said.

“We wanted to go low and tight, just penetrate and not get so high, and

Brittany did that. We got a couple key blocks and it turned the tide, and

we were not making errors, which was different than the second game.”