Vista Murrieta gets best of Sailors

Before Newport Harbor High played in the Dave Mohs Memorial Tournament, Coach Dan Glenn saw the list of volleyball teams.

“There’s some good competition,” he said, referring to Los Alamitos, Santa Margarita, Esperanza, all Sunset League foes, and Santa Barbara, Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood, Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. “You figure out your weaknesses playing good teams.”

Newport Harbor learned that it still can’t beat Vista Murrieta.

The same school that ended the Sailors’ CIF Southern Section Division I-AA playoff run in the second round last year did so in the quarterfinals at Dave Mohs.

As for any motivation in another meeting with Vista Murrieta, Glenn said “maybe it would be a revenge factor” before the three-day event began.

The Sailors got their chance and lost, 24-26, 33-31, 15-9, at Edison Saturday.

The best two-out-of-three format got the best of Newport-Mesa’s top two programs, Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar, which lost in the opening round.

For the second straight year, both failed to reach the final, which Los Alamitos won, beating Harvard-Westlake, 26-24, 20-25, 16-14, on Monday.

In pool play, second-seeded Newport Harbor cruised, sweeping Bishop Montgomery of Torrance and Los Osos before closing out action with a three-game win over Torrey Pines of San Diego.

Everything looked good, earning the pool’s first place heading into the championship round. Then the Sailors won, 25-16, 25-21, in the opening round against Santa Barbara, No. 2 in Division I-A.

This set up the quarterfinal match with Vista Murrieta. The first two games were decided by two points each before Vista Murrieta won out in the third, 15-9, taking advantage of Newport Harbor’s unforced errors.

The Sailors showcased a balanced attack, with Jamie Heenan’s 14 kills and Megan Munce and Mary Buckingham contributed 10 each.

“I’d rather beat them in the playoffs,” said Glenn before the tournament. “That’s when you want to win your games.”

The key to Cait Williamson setting a new Sage Hill School girls’ cross country time was chasing the top.

The junior followed Norco’s Caitlin Villarreal and Yucca Valley’s Ratkowiak for the first mile and a half before finishing the fast 3-mile course at 18 minutes, 28 seconds, resulting in sixth place in the white division varsity race at the 27th annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic Saturday.

“I kind of wanted to stay with them and see how long I can stick with them,” said Williamson, who took 27 seconds off her previous best time that stood as the school’s best mark. “My first mile was really fast. I was like 11:57. I didn’t know how fast the top girls would be.”

Villarreal’s first-place showing at 17:49 and Ratkowiak’s runner-up time of 17:57 pushed Williamson to set a school record.

This time the Newport Harbor boys’ cross country team came to race under the lights.

The Sailors stole some of the spotlight at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic, taking fourth place, one point behind third-place Clovis East in the sweepstakes event.

Coach Nowell Kay called it the best team performance since taking over the program six years ago. He can thank seniors Rex Nelson (14:59, 29th) and Mike Puncel (15:01, 32nd), and juniors Jake Dawson (15:02, 33rd), Michael Taylor (15:29, 62nd) and Alex Crawford (15:36, 74th).

Despite the strong effort, Kay said it’s still early.

Getting to the top of the Sunset League, reaching the CIF Southern Section finals, and for the first time under Kay to state are top priorities.

At least now his Sailors are ready for the big-time events, something he said they weren’t last year.