Tritons sweep in home varsity debut

Jennifer Darrow feels at home coaching girls’ volleyball at Pacifica Christian School, and not just because the scoreboards in the gym at the Newport Beach private school appear to be old ones from her alma mater of Newport Harbor High.

Darrow (then known as Jennifer Palmquist) went on to play for four years at Princeton. She’s excited to be back and coaching volleyball in Newport Beach for the Tritons.

Pacifica Christian, the second-year program which had only junior varsity teams last season, played its first varsity girls’ volleyball home match in program history Wednesday night. The only thing not present in the gym was air conditioning, with two big fans positioned in the corners instead.

Darrow’s Tritons certainly did their part to heat up the gym with their play. They swept Riverside Christian, 25-18, 25-22, 25-22, in the nonleague match, impressing the enthusiastic home crowd.

Don’t look now but Pacifica Christian, which opened the season with another sweep at The Grove School of Redlands on Tuesday, is now 2-0 in its first varsity season.

“It’s been really fun,” Darrow said. “The growth from [Tuesday] to today was quite pronounced. I think we were just a little bit nervous for our first [match Tuesday].”

Sophomores Eunice Choi and Maddy Alaluf, as well as junior middle blocker Isabel Hadley, all had four kills for Pacifica Christian, which likes to spread the ball around. Alaluf was dangerous with the lefty down-the-line shots from the right side for the winners, who are all sophomores or juniors.

“Everyone gets a chance,” said sophomore outside hitter and team captain Kathryn Spoolstra, who led the team with seven digs. “You don’t ever feel like it’s just one person. It’s really nice. For me, I enjoy when other people kill it; I love watching my teammates do a good job.”

Pacifica Christian led for most of the first set, ultimately claiming it. But Riverside Christian (0-2) battled back early in the second set behind some tough serving from senior Ciara Villaverde. Her back-to-back aces gave the Wolverines a 10-2 lead, forcing Darrow to burn her first timeout.

Some standout serving on the other side of the net, from Choi, helped bring Pacifica back. She had two aces during a 6-0 run that pulled the hosts within two. The Tritons were then behind, 19-14, when sophomore libero Sydney Penticuff went back to serve.

Penticuff fired three aces of her own, and didn’t stop serving until the Tritons had a 20-19 lead. A smash from Alaluf gave Pacifica Christian a 24-22 advantage and set point, which the Tritons converted when a hit from Riverside Christian went long.

“Usually I’m nervous, but for some reason I wasn’t,” Penticuff said. “It was just relaxing and fun ... [Choi and I] were a good tag-team.”

Riverside Christian also went ahead 8-2 in the third set before Pacifica Christian began to rally. The Tritons got a match point, at 24-19, on another Alaluf kill. They finally won it on the fourth match point, as a long rally ended with a Riverside Christian hitting error.

“I was really proud of them,” Darrow said. “They could have easily got discouraged and fallen apart, especially in that second game. That lead got pretty big ... they could have easily crumbled under pressure and they just rose to the occasion.”

Sophomore setter Madi Gates had team-best totals of seven assists and four aces for Pacifica Christian. Isabel Hadley had three aces and two blocks to go along with the four kills, while sophomore Larkspur Hadley dished out four assists.

Junior team captain Samantha Hadley had seven kills for Riverside Christian to lead all players. Senior setter Cameron Anderson chipped in five aces.

Pacifica Christian’s next match is Tuesday at Fairmont Prep. The next home match is Sept. 2 against Calvary Chapel Murrieta.

Maybe by then, the gym will have air conditioning.

“Or else no one will be coming to cheer us on,” Darrow said with a laugh.