No. 1 Huntington Beach Meets Barons’ Challenge

Top-ranked Huntington Beach defended its position with an impressive 15-7, 7-15, 15-6, 15-5 victory over second-ranked Fountain Valley in a Sunset League girls’ volleyball match Thursday at Fountain Valley High.

Huntington Beach (12-0, 4-0) overcame some sloppy play in the second game, and Oiler Coach Rocky Ciarelli credited his team’s intelligence for the turnaround.

“We weren’t thinking during the second game, but our girls are smart and they proved it tonight,” Ciarelli said.

Setter Allison Ciarelli kept Fountain Valley’s front line off-balance with a variety of sets. Her favorite target was 6-2 middle blocker Julie Hinsche, who collected 13 kills, mostly on short sets, and committed only one hitting error.

Ciarelli made sure the rest of the Oilers’ offense was busy as well. Dana Atkinson had nine kills, Stephanie Draeger and Lauren Wilson had five each and Lori Daedelow added four. The four combined for only 10 hitting errors.

“She’s just a good setter,” Rocky Ciarelli said of his niece. “If you try to key on one person, she’s going to go somewhere else. Not only does she set the ball well, she thinks, and having a setter that does that makes it a lot easier on a coach.”

Huntington Beach came out strong in the third game as Hinsche’s kill gave the Oilers an 8-3 lead. Daedelow’s ace made it 14-4, and the Barons were then called for four hits on game point.

Huntington Beach quickly grabbed a 9-3 lead in Game 4. Atkinson spiked an overpass to make it 14-5, and Jackie Wolansky couldn’t come up with Wilson’s serve on match point as the Oilers sealed the victory.

Natalie Snowden had 11 kills and Carla Miali added 12 digs for Fountain Valley (8-2, 3-1).

In other Sunset League matches:

Edison 3, Los Alamitos 0--Shauna Steward and Christina Patterson had 10 kills each for visiting Edison (4-6, 1-3), which won, 15-7, 15-4, 15-7.

Esperanza 3, Marina 1--Amy Nihipali had 18 kills for Esperanza (7-1, 3-1), which won, 11-15, 15-13, 15-12, 15-8.