Breakers finding groove

Even as the team lost a couple of tough three-game matches, “improvement” was the word of the week for Laguna Beach High girls’ volleyball.

And even with four sophomores starting, the Breakers showed that improvement at the prestigious Dave Mohs Invitational against some of the top teams in the county.

Laguna Beach was seeded 21st but finished tied for ninth, only going out after pushing eventual semifinalist Orange Lutheran to three games in a 17-25, 25-23, 15-12 defeat Saturday.

“For where we were as a team, experience-wise, I thought we played really well,” Breakers Coach Lance Stewart said. “We got better. We played some incredible defense, dug a ton of balls.”

Along the way, the Breakers took the top-seeded team in their pool — El Dorado — to three games as well before falling, 21-25, 25-22, 15-8. Laguna rebounded for pool-play victories over Mission Viejo, 25-21, 25-19, and Chaparral, 25-19, 25-21.

“It’s nice to win,” said sophomore middle blocker Caroline Holte, who finished with 14 kills in the tournament and hit a team-best .323. “But Coach Lance always said that tournament isn’t about winning, it’s a tournament to improve. We improved a lot and our team spirit was there.

“It was hard without one of our biggest hitters [senior Paulette Grand Pre]. But it was good in a way, because it opened up the door for our other two outsides, Chanel [Stewart] and Avery [Bush].”

Bush led the team with 30 kills in the tournament, while senior Alex Rieckhoff had 25 kills and 50 assists. Stewart had 22 kills and 24 digs, and sophomore Marina Paul led the team in the latter category with 37 digs. Sophomore setter Allison Palmer had 53 assists and 24 digs while sophomore Rachele Killian had 10 service aces.

“Our back row has definitely had to step it up,” Holte said. “We’ve had four sophomores starting on the court, so everyone has had to step up their game.”

The Breakers have been starting sophomores Holte, Palmer, Bush and Paul, but it hasn’t stopped them from competing with Orange County’s elite so far this season.

“We’re not ending rallies right now,” Lance Stewart said. “We’re just keeping it going and we need to end some rallies, but that will come.”

The addition of Grand Pre will help. Grand Pre, who had been out with a back injury, played in the first game of Tuesday’s match at Torrey Pines of San Diego, won by the hosts, 26-24, 25-15, 25-18.

For that match, Chanel Stewart had a team-high eight kills and added 13 digs. Rieckhoff had seven kills and 12 assists and Grand Pre, even in just a single game of work, had five kills.

“In the beginning, we were winning,” Holte said. “We went out there with a lot of fire. The next two games, the fire just died down, but they’re a great team.”

The Breakers are now in the middle of a week-long stretch without a match, but they’ll want the fire to return next week as they play host to rival Corona del Mar at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. Laguna Beach then travels to Newport Harbor Thursday for a match with the Sailors scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

Newport Harbor is ranked No. 7 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1-AA coaches’ poll and CdM is ranked No. 2 in Division 2-AA so those promise to be tough matches for the Breakers, ranked No. 4 in Division 1-A, like they always are.

“They’re rivals and they’re really good every year,” Stewart said. “It’ll be a good test for us. I think we’ll be right there.”