Laguna pushes Dos Pueblos

Falling behind early wasn’t the game plan for the Laguna Beach High girls’ volleyball team in its CIF Southern Section Division I-A semifinal match against Dos Pueblos.

The Breakers did come back and make a match of it, however, before suffering a season-ending 25-23, 25-23, 25-13 loss at home Tuesday night. Laguna Beach (17-10) figured to need to play nearly flawless to hang with Dos Pueblos (29-2), ranked No. 7 in the ESPN Rise girls’ volleyball national rankings. That wasn’t the case as the visiting Chargers jumped out to 9-3 leads in both of the first two games, forcing the Breakers to try to claw back.

“Passing was the difference in the first two games,” Laguna Beach Coach Lance Stewart said. “It’s tough to dig a hole like that against a good team and come all the way back. [Dos Pueblos] is pretty relentless. They’re the first team we played this year that I thought was a better serving team than we were.”

Senior outside hitter Paulette Grand Pre capped a standout career with a team-high 15 kills against Dos Pueblos, and she also had a team-high 14 digs. Senior opposite Alex Rieckhoff had 10 kills, while junior outside Chanel Stewart and sophomore middle blocker Caroline Holte had four each.

Sophomore setter Allison Palmer had 26 assists and 12 digs.

“They were in control but we made it interesting,” Stewart said. “We came back to 24-23 in both of the first two games. One play here or there and we could have been up, 2-0.”

Dos Pueblos senior sisters Carly and Sam Wopat had 12 and 11 kills, respectively. The Wopat twins have committed to Stanford.

“They are some athletes,” Stewart said. “They jump and hit the ball real hard, and make it difficult blocking-wise. Dos Pueblos is big and athletic, and it helps if you have big and athletic kids.”

But Stewart said he was proud of his girls too. Laguna Beach had another solid year which included another Orange Coast League title, as well as advancing to at least the semifinals of CIF for the sixth straight year. Stewart also pointed to wins against quality teams like Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach and El Dorado, the latter coming in the CIF quarterfinals Saturday night.

Grand Pre had 19 kills and 33 digs as the Breakers got the win, 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, 25-19, on the road.

Huntington Beach will play Dos Pueblos for the Division I-A title at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Cypress College.