MiraCosta women's beach volleyball won its second consecutive CIF Southern Division championship Saturday by defeating Redondo in the Division 1 final at Long Beach City College. (Photo by Damian Calhoun/Daily Breeze)
Long Beach MiraCosta girls beach volleyball coach Nancy Reynolds is hesitant to talk about the streak.
On Saturday, Reynolds finally took the time to add a winning streak to the MiraCosta girls beach volleyball team's undefeated record. As a result, his winning streak now stands at 166.
Mira Costa can safely add another CIF Southern Division championship to its collection, as it defeated Bay League rival Redondo 4-1 in the Division 1 final at Long Beach City College. This is the second year that CIF-SS has sanctioned a beach volleyball championship tournament.
Reynolds “Hito Anshin” wins the CIF-SS title for the second year in a row. “I definitely knew it was going to be a battle. Going into the season, I thought Serra would be strong…The first time I saw Redondo they were 5-0, but I knew they were going to be tough until the end. I knew that.
“I'm very happy for the girls and I'm very proud of them. We had a few different lineups throughout the year to see what would work. On some courts I We’re a little bit smaller, so I’m proud of them.”
MiraCosta started the day with a 5-0 win over Huntington Beach in the semifinals.
Redondo advanced to the finals for the second consecutive season. The second game of the Bay League ended with MiraCosta winning 3-2.
The Mustangs relied on their depth in the finals, winning games 3, 4, and 5 to take a 3-0 lead and decide the game.
Simone Rosron and Kate Morley won in two sets on Court 3, Alex Kurtz and Ruby Cochrane won on Court 4, and Kendall Stellar and Reese Tysandoval won on Court 5.
“(Audrey) Flanagan and Olga Nikolaeva play together all the time and we know when they're going to play and we have a lot of confidence that they're going to get the job done,” Reynolds said. “They played together in the semifinals, but in the final I split them up trying to get a little bit of a different energy. It worked on one court, not the other, but the match We won, that's all that matters.”
In the final, Flanagan paired with No. 1 Gisele Lau and defeated the Redondo pair of Gigi Gallegos and Victoria Henkel in three sets.
“We're missing Taylor Deckert and taking her out of the lineup is a big hole to fill,” Reynolds said. “It's about figuring out where to complement her. Routh (Giselle and Savannah) play big and play offensively, but they're not huge blockers, so where can we create chemistry and get a few extra points?” We're trying to figure out if we can get that.”
Redondo's only win of the match came at No. 2, when the duo of Kenzie Miller and Adi Junk defeated Nikolaeva and Savannah Rau in three sets.
“Personally, I think we could have played a little bit better. I'm not going to take anything away from Costa. They're obviously a great team. They fight in every set, every pair,” Redondo coach Mark said.・Paaluhi said. “I think we could have played a little bit better in some places, but we knew it was going to be a battle and the kids fought hard, so we just fell a little short.
“Hats off to Costa, they're a powerhouse. They continue to fill that slot, continue to train, continue to work hard, but we're going to be back and we're looking forward to next year.”
Redondo's day started with a 3-2 victory over J.Serra.
“We have seven seniors, and three of them weren't able to be here today,” Paalhi said. “I told them this is it: No games, no practice tomorrow, give it your all.”