A year of individual, team success
1) April Ross
The Costa Mesa resident and Newport Harbor High product was named Most Valuable Player by the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals beach tour and was also USA Volleyball’s female beach player of the year after a dominant season with partner Kerri Walsh Jennings.
In her first full season with Walsh Jennings, a three-time Olympic gold medalist with former partner and Newport Harbor High product Misty May, Ross led the AVP in kills (554) and aces (94). The 6-foot-1 former USC All-American, who won a silver medal with Jennifer Kessy at the 2012 Olympics in London, was second among AVP players with a .509 hitting percentage and was third in digs (372).
Ross, who also won the AVP’s top server award, teamed with Walsh Jennings to win all seven AVP events and compile a 36-0 record.
The AVP’s top team also won four Federation Internationale de Volleyball events, including the World Series of Beach Volleyball in Long Beach.
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2) UCI baseball
Coach Mike Gillespie’s Anteaters, whom some believed before the season could have been the program’s worst team in a decade, rebounded from a dismal regular-season finish to reach the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
The program’s second trip to Omaha, seven years after it first ascended to the sport’s biggest stage, included stunning upset victories over national top seed Oregon State in the regional and Big 12 champion Oklahoma State in the super regional.
UCI lost its final six regular-season games and eight of its last nine, before winning six of its first seven postseason contests and finishing 1-2 in the CWS.
Senior Andrew Morales was the Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year, an All-American and winner of the Senior CLASS Award. He went 11-2 with a 1.53 earned-run average and led the nation with 141 strikeouts and 19 starts. He was 21-2 in two seasons at UCI, after posting a 21-1 record in two years at Rio Hondo Community College.
Morales was chosen 71st in the draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, 13 spots after junior third baseman Taylor Sparks went to the New York Yankees.
Sparks hit .308 with five home runs and 37 runs batted in, while junior first baseman Connor Spencer (.366 with one homer and 44 RBIs) was drafted by the New York Yankees.
Junior closer Sam Moore led the nation with a Big West-record 23 saves on his way to All-American honors, while junior shortstop Chris Rabago was drafted by the Colorado Rockies.
The season also included Division I win No. 1,000 for Gillespie, 74, who later signed a four-year contract extension to coach the team through 2018.
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3) Sage Hill girls’ volleyball
Senior stars Kekai Whitford, Halland McKenna and Maddy Abbott helped the Lightning cap a monumental four-year run that included three CIF Southern Section titles and one runner-up showing.
Whitford, the Daily Pilot Dream Team Player of the Year bound for Loyola Marymount, earned All-CIF laurels as a 5-foot-7 outside hitter.
McKenna, an outside hitter who will play libero at Stanford, was named CIF Southern Section 3AA Player of the Year, while Abbott, a setter bound for Michigan, was the Academy League MVP.
The trio helped Coach Dan Thomassen’s squad go 25-4, win its second straight section crown and compile a 99-22 record in four seasons, including a section title in 2011. Thomassen was named Southern Section Division 3AA Coach of the Year.
The Lightning were eliminated in the CIF Southern California Regional Division III final for the second straight year, but claimed the program’s first outright league championship.
Another season highlight was an early season sweep of Mater Dei, which eventually reached the CIF Southern Section final.
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4) Vanguard men’s basketball
The Lions, who had just one winning season in their previous five campaigns and were 1-2 in two previous NAIA Division I Tournament appearances, stunned the field by earning the program’s first national championship.
Senior first-team All-American guard Preston Wynne averaged 26.6 points in five tournament wins in Kansas City, Mo., to help fourth-year coach Rhett Soliday’s squad (32-6) finish on a nine-game winning streak.
Wynne, the Golden State Athletic Conference Player of the Year, averaged 20.9 points for the season, which began with a 20-2 record before the Lions went 3-4 in a 20-day stretch in February.
After winning its first GSAC regular-season championship since 1990, the Lions won the program’s first GSAC Tournament crown and were the No. 6 seed in Kansas City.
Junior guard Chris Gorman earned second-team All-American honors, while juniors DeAngelo Jones and Keith Mason, as well as freshman Zach Allmon, were also keys in helping the Lions bring the national title banner back to Costa Mesa.
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5) OCC baseball
Coach John Altobelli’s Pirates won their final 15 games, including all nine postseason contests, to surge to the program’s fifth state title.
OCC finished 36-9, just one win shy of the school record set by the 2009 state champions.
The Pirates swept three games at the four-team state tournament at Fresno City College, defeating San Joaquin Delta, 5-3, to clinch the crown.
Sophomore twins Davis and Jacob Hill shared Orange Empire Conference Pitcher of the Year honors, while sophomore shortstop Cody Nulph ended the season on a 30-game hitting streak and was OEC Player of the Year.
Nulph, a bounce-back from Pepperdine who will play next season at Auburn, hit .414.
David Hill, who earned the state-title-clinching victory by pitching seven innings on a badly sprained ankle, was 11-1 with a 1.67 earned-run average, while Jacob Hill was 11-0 with a 1.27 ERA.
Freshman pitcher Art Vidro, who was 4-0 in the postseason, finished 8-3 with a 2.22 ERA.
Sophomore first baseman Chris Iriart had 10 homers and 48 runs batted in, while freshman right fielder Tommy Bell hit .384 with five homers and 39 RBIs and sophomore center fielder Cody Bruder hit .359 with four homers and 31 RBIs.
Altobelli’s 22nd season also included career win No. 500.
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6) Prolific prep quarterbacks
Newport Harbor High senior Cole Norris topped a strong crop of signal callers for Newport-Mesa football programs in 2014, virtually taking authorship of the Sailors’ passing record book.
Norris, bound for Northern Arizona University next year, completed 188 of 299 attempts for 2,517 yards and 30 touchdowns for the Sailors, whom he led to the CIF Southern Section playoffs. The Sunset League Offensive Player of the Year is No. 1 in school annals for career passing yards (6,955), career touchdown passes (73), single-season touchdown passes, as well as single-game standards for passing yards (474), touchdowns (six), attempts (63) and completions (tied at 36).
Sage Hill senior CJ McCord threw for 2,150 yards and 22 touchdowns, completing 159 of 321 attempts to repeat as a first-team All-Academy League choice. He has 3,841 career passing yards and 38 career touchdown passes in a little more than two varsity seasons.
Sophomore Chase Garbers just might own some Corona del Mar records before he’s through, after completing 108 of 154 passes for 1,356 yards and 11 touchdowns, with only two interceptions, despite virtually sharing the job with junior Peter Bush (74 for 121 for 993 yards and six touchdowns with just three interceptions).
What’s more, Garbers, the Pacific Coast League Offensive MVP, rushed for 236 yards and nine touchdowns, while Bush compiled 242 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
Estancia High senior Connor Brown earned Orange Coast League Offensive Player of the Year honors after helping the Eagles go unbeaten in five league games. He completed 111 of 199 for 1,598 yards and 11 touchdowns.
7) CdM football
A run of three straight CIF Southern Section division titles, the most dominant stretch in Newport-Mesa football history, came to an end when Coach Scott Meyer’s top-seeded Sea Kings were knocked off by Trabuco Hills, 28-10, in the quarterfinals of the Southwest Division playoffs to finish 10-2.
The team’s first loss of the season, a 28-14 setback at Tesoro in the fifth game of the campaign, halted a 30-game winning streak, which at the time was the longest in the state.
CdM, which capped its 30-game streak with a 28-18 win over Back Bay rival Newport Harbor, dominated the Pacific Coast League to claim the league crown.
Senior defensive end Chase Parker, who amassed 22 sacks in 2014 to give him 38.5 in a three-year varsity career, was named PCL Most Valuable Player.
Sophomore quarterback Chase Garbers and senior middle linebacker Hoyt Crance were the league’s Offensive MVP and Defensive MVP, respectively.
Additional standouts included senior receivers Bo. St. Geme and Cole Collins, junior offensive tackle Mitch Dean, senior offensive tackle Jack Pagliassotto, senior cornerback Brett Greenlee, senior safety Barrett Barbato, senior defensive end Harrison Carter, senior defensive tackle Justin Hess and senior safety/linebacker Hugh Crance.
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8) UCI men’s basketball
Coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters claimed the program’s first Big West Conference regular-season title since 2002??. They were upset in the semifinals of the conference tournament and settled for an NIT bid, before finishing 23-12, 13-3 in conference.
UCI finished ranked No. 3 nationally in field-goal-percentage defense (37.4%) and No. 4 in total blocked shots with a school-record 224.
The 23 wins tied for second-most in program history.
Mamadou Ndiaye, a 7-foot-6 freshman center, was named Defensive Player of the Year in the conference after setting a Big West record with 106 blocks.
Chris McNealy, the lone senior on the team, was named first-team all-conference, while guard Luke Nelson was named Big West Freshman of the Year after leading the team in scoring (11.8 per game).
Will Davis matched McNealy, the team MVP, by averaging 11 points per game.
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9) OCC men’s volleyball
Coach Travis Turner’s squad capped a 20-1 season by claiming the school’s sixth state championship in a state-record 15th state final appearance.
OCC, which had lost its seven previous California Community College Athletic Assn. championship matches, defeated Santa Monica, 25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 21-25, 15-10, at Santiago Community College.
Jim Webb, a 6-foot-6 sophomore opposite, led the Pirates with 20 kills, not long before heading off to train to become a Navy SEAL.
Sophomore outside hitter Ty Hutchins was the Pacific Coast Conference Player of the Year, while sophomore setter Brendan Duff was named MVP of the state tournament.
Hutchins is bound for BYU, while Duff is set to continue at Concordia.
Turner was named PCC Coach of the Year.
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10) Vanguard fall sports
The Lions finished fifth at the NAIA men’s soccer tournament, ninth at the women’s volleyball national tournament and were NAIA Tournament participants in women’s soccer to highlight an unprecedented degree of fall success for the school.
Coach Eryn Jeja’s Lions were 25-13 in volleyball, and were ranked No. 21 in the final regular-season poll.
Vanguard fell to No. 6-ranked Missouri Baptist, 25-22, 26-28, 25-23, 19-25, 15-13, in Sioux City, Iowa, to see their season end.
Senior Kelly Heenan was named Golden State Athletic Conference Libero of the Year.
Coach Randy Dodge’s men’s soccer team won the GSAC Tournament and two NAIA Tournament games before falling, 3-1, to Northwestern Ohio in the national quarterfinals at Delray Beach, Fla to snap a nine-match unbeaten streak.
The Lions finished 14-7-2.
Dodge’s women’s soccer team shared the GSAC regular-season title and was ranked No. 10 heading into the NAIA Tournament. But after a 0-0 tie, Cal State San Marcos advanced from the first-round tournament match to end Vanguard’s season with a 16-3-2 mark.
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Others: CdM High sophomore Alyaa Abdulghany wins CIF Southern Section individual girls’ golf title; UCI men’s soccer reaches the NCAA Sweet 16; Former UCI basketball player Darren Fells makes the Arizona Cardinals as a tight end; Ex-Anteater Christian Bergman makes MLB debut with Colorado Rockies; The Daily Pilot Cup rolls on; Newport Harbor High boys water polo coach Robert Lynn resigns amid controversy; Newport Harbor High girls’ water polo coach Bill Barnett announces he will step down after his 49th season ends in 2015.