Harris does it all for Sea Kings

Last week’s Battle of the Bay girls’ volleyball match went as well as Corona del Mar High senior Jessie Harris could have expected.

Harris, a four-year starter for CdM who is playing outside hitter this year, won her fourth Battle of the Bay. She had a team-best 11 kills in the Sea Kings’ 18-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-22 victory on the Sailors’ court.

After the match, Harris also received a text message that made her smile. It came from her best friend, Newport Harbor senior outside hitter Remy Wilson.

Wilson led everyone in the match with 16 kills. To Harris, it was the best of the both worlds.

“She’s a very stubborn person,” Harris said with a smile of Wilson. “The past couple of years after we’ve won, we haven’t talked for a little bit, you know, because she’s a getting a little heated and stuff. After this [match], she texted me like, ‘Great game tonight.’ I knew she was satisfied, because she played so well. It was a great way to end it for me, knowing that she was happy and played well, and our team won. I was happy for her, but then I could be happy for us at the same time.”

Harris, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, certainly cares about her friendships. Playing club volleyball for Laguna Beach, she’s made friends with many of the top girls’ volleyball players in south Orange County. And her bonds with her fellow seniors on the CdM girls’ volleyball team — Payton Carter, Natalia Bruening, Sydney Alacano and Carli Cuthbertson — also run deep.

Harris, Carter and Bruening, the co-captains, have been playing volleyball together for years. Each will play sports at the next level, with Harris headed to Princeton and the libero Carter at Pepperdine. Bruening, a middle blocker, will play basketball at UC Santa Barbara.

CdM Coach Steve Astor actually coached the talented trio a few years back at Orange County Volleyball Club, in an assistant role when they were 14.

“We all loved him when he was our assistant coach,” Harris said. “When we were on that team, there was talk about getting a new coach here [at CdM after Marissa Booker resigned],” Harris said. “We were like, ‘Steve, apply for the job, apply for the job.’ He was like, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ Then finally we found out that he did, and we were just freaking out. It was just one of those moments like, OK, we’ve got the coach. Let’s go, guys.”

Astor, now in his third year in charge, knows that he can trust Harris. She does a little bit of everything for the Sea Kings (10-1), ranked No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division 1AA and No. 5 in the state by MaxPreps.com.

Harris, at 5-foot-9, has typically been a setter at CdM and in club, and played opposite as well last year. Now, she’s primarily playing outside hitter for the first time since her very first year in volleyball. And, oh by the way, she leads CdM with 111 kills this season.

“It’s definitely a big learning experience for me,” she said. “Most of the seniors on our team, they know their position, they know what to do. I’m kind of the one who’s like, I have no idea what to do. But it’s still just super-fun and I really like it. I’m not complaining.”

Harris, who Astor calls “a born leader,” never does. It’s rare to find an athlete who plays both setter and outside hitter. But Harris does it all on the volleyball court. Setting, hitting, blocking, digging, serving, you name it.

“We call them a five-tool player in baseball,” Astor said. “She does all five at a very high level. I think what sets her apart from people from a volleyball standpoint is just how smart she is. She’s at a different level mentally than everybody else. Princeton has no idea how good of a player they’re going to get ... I could talk about Jessie for days.”

Harris, who has a 4.3 cumulative grade-point average at CdM, seems to stand out in every area. She consistently made plays in the Battle of the Bay, even after Newport Harbor won the first set. The Sea Kings won set two to level the match.

It was late in the third set that CdM leaned on the experience of Harris. CdM was down 20-18 when the Sea Kings made a standout defensive play on a tough serve by Newport Harbors’ Vivian Donovan. Harris somehow got the ball back over the net, and it landed on the Sailors’ side.

Harris then went back to serve at 20-19. She said she was a bit nervous, after missing two serves earlier in the set.

Typically Astor will tell his players where to serve, but this time he gave Harris free rein.

“In that moment, I thought, ‘Let’s let Jessie do what she wants to do,’” Astor said. “She made me look smart. She changed the match, really, to be quite honest.”

Five points later, CdM was up 24-20 and had set points. They converted the second one, with Harris setting the ball to freshman middle Kendall Kipp for the kill. The Sea Kings went on to win the match in four.

Harris knows CdM has much more to accomplish. They begin defense of their Pacific Coast League title on Thursday at Woodbridge. And the Division 1A playoffs will be tough as always.

Last year, Harris helped the Sea Kings make the semifinals, upsetting No. 2-seeded Lakewood in the quarterfinals before falling to Mater Dei. Harris said it was a good result for a CdM team that she felt was a bit underrated, after star outside hitter Hayley Hodson, now at Stanford, decided not to return. Harris individually was the league co-MVP with then-senior outside Katie Craig, after totaling 274 kills, 438 assists, 152 digs and 20 blocks.

Nobody is underrating CdM this year, with the No. 5 national ranking by MaxPreps. The website actually ranked the Sea Kings as the top team in the country earlier this season, before they lost to Corona Santiago in the semifinals of the Dave Mohs Tournament.

“All of us are looking at it as something to work toward, instead of saying we’ve already achieved it,” Harris said. “If we looked at it like we’ve already achieved it, there would be no motivation. I think for us, the biggest thing is that we need to be motivated. We have the talent, I think it just needs to be one of those things where we put it all together. The ranking helps us visualize it, I guess.”

It’s a smart perspective given by a smart player, one who CdM will miss next year for her skills but also her competitive drive.

“She wants to be in the big match,” Astor said. “She’s so confident in herself, which she should be, and I’d say it’s an earned confidence. There’s a lot of false confidence out there ... but she works her tail off everyday and gets the results. She’s a great example of earned confidence.”

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Jessie Harris

Born: Dec. 20, 1997

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5-foot-9

Sport: Volleyball

Year: Senior

Coach: Steve Astor

Favorite food: Chocolate

Favorite movie: “Saving Private Ryan”

Favorite athletic moment: Helping CdM upset No. 2-seeded Lakewood last year in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1AA playoffs.

Week in review: Harris had a team-high 11 kills as CdM won at Newport Harbor in four sets on Sept. 16, the Sea Kings’ sixth straight Battle of the Bay match win.