CHATSWORTH — After having its CIF-SS Div. 1 Pool B opening match postponed because of a leaky gym roof, the Sierra Canyon School girls volleyball team was ready to roll when it finally clashed with Marymount on Friday.
The Trailblazers, who are the top seed in their pool and second seed overall in the Div. 1 playoffs, bested the visiting Sailors (22-11) in straight sets, 25-23, 25-9, 25-22. Marymount (22-11) fell to Sierra Canyon (30-1) twice in the regular season but was the only Mission League team to beat them in multiple sets this season.
“After the kind of weird, wild week we’ve had in terms of having to reschedule the match, and how we got prepared to play and then had to to shut it down and get reset again, this one made me nervous,” Sierra Canyon coach Stefanie Wigfall said. “We already played them twice, and it’s hard to keep beating talented teams. I’m glad this one’s behind us, because it’s always a tough match against Marymount.”
Sierra Canyon continues pool play with home matches against Los Alamitos on Oct. 27 and Mira Costa on Oct. 31.
“It’s always a good game with Marymount,” Sierra Canyon captain Hanna McGinest said. “It was very important that we handle them today. We’ve always been back and forth with them and I feel like a game like this prepares us for what’s for the next few games.”
McGinest, a Texas Tech commit, registered the game-ending kill in the third set. It tied her with teammate Tennessee commit Eva Jeffries with a game-high eight kills.
University of Southern California commit McKenna McIntosh and Kendall Omoruyi, who’s bound for Nebraska, both chipped in six kills in the win.
“I’ve been on the other side of that as a coach, and it can be maddening, because you can’t stop everybody,” Wigfall said. “If you try and stop everybody, you end up stopping nobody, so you really have to make some tough decisions, and you have to ride with those decisions. They did a really good job of slowing Hanna down. You have to do that. And I think our job is to realize really quickly what they’re trying to do and counter it.”
Sierra Canyon also got strong showings from Raneighla Gonzalez, who registered six blocks, and Blake Gurney who joined in Omoruyi with four aces from the service line.
“We all know our roles and positions,” McGinest said. “We believe we’re all very good players. If any of us needs to make a play we trust them to handle it.”