Locals conjure past

With both the Corona del Mar High and Newport Harbor girls’ volleyball teams in the state playoffs after their section finals, the intensity level is even higher.

Although it is quite often a difficult task to recreate the enthusiasm after a CIF final, it is another step toward maximizing your season. Most teams start with two parts, preseason and league season. A third part is the CIF playoffs, which require increased intensity. Now, with success at the section level, teams in the state tournament have a chance to be the state high school champion. The state tournament division is based on school enrollment only.

On Tuesday, Newport Harbor, in the Division I Southern California Regional, swept Granada Hills, who was the Los Angeles City Champion, while CdM, in Division II, traveled to San Diego county to beat Ramona, who won a San Diego section title.

The Back Bay schools’ wins put both teams in Saturday’s Southern California Regional semifinals. The regional final is Tuesday and the state final between the winning teams in the south and the north is Dec. 5 at UC Irvine’s Bren Event Center.

Newport’s at home Saturday against Huntington Beach, with the match starting at 7. The Sea Kings travel to Wildomar to play at Elsinore.

The first local team to play in the state tournament was the 1984 Corona del Mar team. After losing the CIF final to Gahr, the Sea Kings went on the road. The first game was at Roosevelt High in East Los Angeles. Roosevelt had won the city championship. The school was a tough place to play as the bus was escorted to the gym by armed security guards. The gates to the school locked behind the bus. There were only a few parents in the stands. CdM won in three and got out of town as quickly as possible. An aside, the infamous Night Stalker was picked up a month later a few blocks from the school. Quite an adventure for our CdM girls.

Next stop was a trip to St Joseph’s (winner of another CIF section), who played its games in the school cafeteria. Before a loud crowd and with balls bouncing off of the chandeliers, CdM pulled out a five-game triumph.

Davis, who was the best in the north, was the semifinal opponent and Corona took care of business to setup a rematch with Gahr. This time, CdM won in four in an upset victory. CdM’s Brooke Herrington was named MVP, but it was a total team effort. Christy Linden who was 5-foot-4, literally served Gahr off of the court.