Mira Costa

Taylor Pitz reigns again Laguna Beach High's Taylor Pitz won the High School Women's division title Saturday and Sunday to repeat as champion at the 2011 National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Interscholastic State Championships at the Huntington Beach Pier. Pitz easily captured the division, taking the crown with a score of 12.67 to outdistance runner-up Kulia Doherty of San Clemente who had 8.37 points. Edison's Anise Guzman (6.50) was third, Shelby Detmers (6.33) of Newport Harbor was fourth, Sarah Locke (5.50)

Lance Stewart doesn?t like to make comparisons. Case in point: Although he acknowledges last year?s stunning success for his Laguna Beach High girls? volleyball program, he doesn?t want to hold it up to the 2007 Breakers, who held tryouts on Tuesday and held their first practice session Wednesday. Here goes, anyway: A year ago, a magical season saw Laguna compile a 29-6 record, capture four of six tournaments it entered, win Orange Coast League, CIF Southern Section Division II-AA and Southern California Regional Division II titles and play in a state title game for just the second time in school history.

Mike Sciacca Here we go, round No. 3. For the third time this season, Laguna Beach High will be meeting Villa Park in girls' water polo play. The stakes coming out of today's 6:30 p.m. match at the William J. Woolett Center in Irvine, are much bigger than those from the first two meetings between the teams. That's became the third showdown between the Breakers and Spartans is coming in the semifinal round of the CIF-Southern Section Division II playoffs, and the winner gets a trip to Monday's division final at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

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.

The Laguna Beach High girls' water polo team ended the regular season as the No. 1 team in the final CIF-Southern Section Division II poll leading up to the postseason playoffs. The Breakers are ranked first for the second straight week and have been awarded the No. 1-seed in the Division II playoffs. The only change in the poll from last week is that Capistrano Valley moved into the rankings and replaced Dana Hills at No. 8. The Dolphins fell out of the rankings. Laguna's boys' basketball team ended the regular season ranked fifth in the Division IIIA poll.

Laguna Beach High's boys' volleyball team won its third match of the year by sweeping past the Highland Bulldogs, 25-13, 25-15, 25-22, in a nonleague match Tuesday. Middle blocker Luke Morris led the Breakers in kills with 11, followed by Chris Hoffman with nine. Trey Chapel had five kills and five serving aces. Setter Clark Olson had 30 assists. The win improved Laguna's season record to 2-1. Previously, Laguna defeated Pacific Coast League rival Northwood, 25-18, 16-25, 15-9, in the finals of the 18th annual Foothill Tournament.

Girls' tennis jumps into first, and girls' volleyball is fourth. Boys' water polo team ranks ninth.The Laguna Beach High girls' tennis team has ascended to the top of the heap in the CIF-Southern Section Division I poll. The latest poll was released Monday by the Southern Section office in Los Alamitos. Laguna, ranked third the previous week, took over the top spot after going on the road on Oct. 26 and upsetting Peninsula, which had held down the No. 1 ranking for the entire regular season.