It’s on to tonight’s CIF championship match for the Laguna Beach girls’ volleyball team.
The top-seeded Breakers made the most of the school’s 22nd all-time appearance in a CIF-Southern Section divisional semifinal round match Tuesday and by doing so, now has a shot to repeat as the Division II-AA champion.
The Breakers earned a spot in the 7 p.m. final at Cypress College by sweeping visiting Ayala Tuesday, 25-17, 25-14, 25-18, at Dugger Gym.
It was the first-ever meeting between the schools.
Top-seed Laguna, now 20-7 overall, will take on No. 2-seed Bishop Montgomery in tonight’s final. The Knights reserved a place in the final by beating No. 3-seed Corona del Mar in Tuesday’s other semifinal match.
Laguna beat Corona del Mar in last November’s division final to win the championship.
Tonight marks the school’s 11th trip to a division final and the Breakers have an opportunity to win the school’s fifth overall Southern Section title and third in the last 11 years. This team also has the chance to lead the school to back-to-back CIF championships for the first time in the program’s illustrious history.
“It should be a great match,” Laguna Coach Lance Stewart said. “Bishop Montgomery has a lot of good athletes, a lot of beach volleyball players who have good ball control. They have a left-handed outside hitter (Jennifer Edmond) who is terrific.
“Outside of matches against Mira Costa, Newport Harbor and Archbishop Mitty, they’re the best team we’ll face.”
By defeating Ayala — the champion of the Sierra League who finished its season 23-9 — in three, Laguna has now swept all three of its playoff opponents.
“That speaks to the depth of our program,” Stewart said of his team’s current run in the postseason. “We can’t control who is in our division but we do have some talented athletes who make this program what it is. I mean, we lose two all-CIF players (Mychaela Miller and Zoe Garrett) who are now at USC, and are able to fill their slots with a sophomore (Paulette Grand Pre) and junior (Kameron Combs), and both players are playing out of position this year.
