Redondo head coach Tommy Chaffins must have had the feeling of déjà vu. For the second time in three years, his girls volleyball team came up short in a nail-biting match for the CIF Division 1-AA championship.
Two years ago, it was Long Beach Poly that spoiled Redondo’s bid for a title. Saturday night it was Marymount’s turn as the second-seeded Sailors defeated the top-ranked Sea Hawks for the first time in three matches this year, snapping Redondo’s 30-match winning streak with a 25-18, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-13 victory at Santiago Canyon College in Orange.
After a slow start in the opening set, Redondo rebounded taking the next two sets but couldn’t put the match away in a see-saw battle between two of Southern California’s top volleyball programs.
“Marymount is one of the top programs in the state,” Chaffins said. “They have great players and great coaches so we knew it would be a battle.”
Despite the loss, the season is far from over for Redondo (35-4), which will play at Palisades (18-2) Tuesday in the first round of the CIF State Volleyball Championships presented by Farmers where 79 teams from across California will compete in five divisions (16-team brackets) based on school enrollment. All matches through the Regional Finals will take place at host sites and begin at 7 p.m.
Palisades swept Narbonne Saturday to win the L.A.City Section championship. Redondo earned the No. 3 seed in the Division 1 Southern California bracket while Palisades is seeded sixth.
The winner of the match will face the winner between No. 2 Torrey Pines and No. 7 El Dorado in the second round action on Saturday. The Regional finals take place on Tuesday, Nov. 25. The State Finals will be held Saturday, Dec. 1 at Concordia University in Irvine. All five Final matches will be televised on Time Warner Cable.
Redondo senior Skylar Dykstra hopes to avenge the loss in the CIF finals with a state title, beating top-seeded Marymount along the way. Despite recording a team-high 20 kills, Dykstra and the Redondo offense was kept in check by a stifling Marymount defense that limited Redondo to 50 kills while making 77 of its own. Marymount improved its season record to 35-5.
The Sea Hawks battled back from a 10-7 deficit in the fifth game, tying the score at 12-12 and 13-13 before Kaitlyn Edwards put the match away with two points to give Marymount its ninth CIF title and first Division 1-AA championship after winning the Division 1-A crown in 2006, 2010 and 2012.
Last season, Marymount fell to Palo Alto in five sets in the State Division 1 championship match.
Redondo will look to improve its hitting percentage going into the State playoffs. Dykstra was the lone Sea Hawk to have double digit kills against Marymount but her 22 digs helped keep Redondo in the match. Brianna Lanktree had nine kills and seven digs; Abril Bustamante recorded seven kills; Hannah Mosebar added six kills and Skye Compton contributed four kills.
Freshman setter Norene Iosia had 42 assists and 12 digs and libero Katie Rotondo posted 24 digs for Redondo.
Brackets for the State tournament will be posted Sunday afternoon at cifstate.org.
