Sailors sweep San Gorgonio

Chris Yemma

The Newport Harbor High girls volleyball team quickly closed the

window on visiting San Gorgonio’s postseason appearance, sweeping the

Spartans, 25-13, 25-3, 25-13, in the first round of the CIF Southern

Section Division II-AA playoffs Tuesday night.

The Sailors (13-12) dominated the entire match against an outsized

and outmatched Spartan team that finished its season 6-11.

A coin flip today at 9 a.m. will determine the home team for the

Sailors’ second-round match against Victor Valley at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Victor Valley defeated Hemet, 25-12, 21-25, 25-10, 30-28, to advance

to the second round.

In a match that featured a three-point performance from San

Gorgonio of San Bernardino in the second game, the Sailors will

inevitably face stronger teams in playoff rounds to come. Victor

Valley (14-2) will most likely be one of those teams.

“You see all sorts of teams in the playoffs,” Sailor Coach Dan

Glenn said before Tuesday’s match. “Some teams are very unorthodox,

but [San Gorgonio] isn’t going to be real, real good.”

Glenn’s prediction turned out to be accurate, as Newport was over

and done with the match in less than an hour, despite Glenn rotating

three freshmen throughout the match, and removing senior captain

Kiley Hall early in the third game.

Hall accounted for eight kills in her two-plus games, while senior

Taryn Tarnutzer also slammed home eight kills.

“The biggest advantage we had was that it was a home game,” Hall

said. “We came out ready to play.”

Hall added there are things the team needs to work on for upcoming

Victor Valley. The pace needs to be quicker for the team to be more

effective, she said.

Rotating in during various parts of the match, sophomore Megan

Toman saw productive playing time. Her serving in the second game

paved the way to a 10-0 opening before the Spartans called a timeout

to slow the momentum.

San Gorgonio scored on the following play, but Newport tallied the

next eight points to cap an 18-1 run, with seniors Hadley Burnham and

Tarnutzer combining on a block for the 18th point.

“The good thing about volleyball, is it’s not like basketball or

other sports where you can really blow the opponent out,” Glenn said

after the sweep. “We learned how to warmup in this one.”

The Sailors were coming off a hair-splitting match at Corona del

Mar Friday night, where the Sailors lost in five games to the Pacific

Coast League champions.

After that loss, Glenn said he looked at it as the first playoff

match. It turned out to be an excellent practice run for the

playoffs.

Newport was able to gain experience in the first round.

“We’ve got three freshmen out here tonight,” Glenn said after

Tuesday’s win. “This is their first time in the playoffs and it’s

good experience.”

Alesha Young, Megan Munce and Jamie Heenan were the three freshmen

present for the Sailors. Young finished with three aces.

If Newport defeats Victor Valley Thursday, the Sailors will play

in the quarterfinals Saturday against the winner of North Torrance

and El Dorado (also playing Thursday night) at a site to be

determined.

Glenn said he doesn’t care who his team will face in the upcoming

rounds, but he’s looking forward to it.

“This is my favorite time of the year,” he said. “Starting with

the Corona match and then going in to the playoffs, one loss and the

season’s over, it’s great.”