Huntington Beach girls’ volleyball has playoff run brought to halt by Mira Costa

MANHATTAN BEACH —  Manhattan Beach Mira Costa and Mater Dei will square off for the CIF Southern Section girls’ volleyball championship on Saturday night at Cerritos College.

With just one loss in a best-of-five contest combined this season — a match won in straight sets by Mira Costa on Aug. 29 — few would argue the final had not been written in the stars.

Huntington Beach hoped to crash the party. The Oilers tested the Mustangs, but No. 2-seeded Mira Costa foiled those plans in dismissing the visitors 25-22, 25-18, 25-22 on Saturday to cap postseason pool play.

Charlie Fuerbringer, a Wisconsin-bound setter, played the role of the magician for Mira Costa (38-2), disguising her deliveries with a deft touch. She had 35 assists and kept the Oilers honest with several second-contact swings, leading to three kills.

“There’s not a lot of times where we’re looking at the other side of the court and I’m going, ‘That setter is better than our setter,’” Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti said. “She’s just different. Two months ago, she was winning the [FIVB] World Championships with the U19 team.

“She just brings an aspect to the game of deception. She’s very deceptive in what she does. We didn’t quite follow the game plan in what we were trying to do against her, but we still made a lot of plays. I think you were looking at the two best setters that I’ve seen this year on the floor tonight. They both play defense, they both run a great offense.”

Huntington Beach (28-8) jumped out to a 17-12 lead in the first set, a 4-0 start to the second, and a 14-9 advantage in the third. Mira Costa dug in defensively at every turn.

“They just made plays late,” Pazanti added. “I think we stopped passing the ball a little bit, got a little complacent late in sets, but I couldn’t ask for more. We tinkered with the lineup all week, trying to make adjustments, and the bottom line was we were going to dance with who got us here, and they did a great job.”

The pin hitters saw the lion’s share of the opportunities for Huntington Beach, which now awaits the release of the brackets for the CIF State Southern California regional playoffs. Senior outside hitter Haylee LaFontaine and junior opposite Taylor Ponchak had 11 kills apiece, and sophomore outside hitter Addison Williams added eight kills.

“I think that we were ready, we were hungry,” Williams said. “We wanted another opportunity from our game that we had in Vegas [in the Durango Fall Classic], and we were ready to fight back and give it our all and just put 100% effort out there. I think we did that. There were just a couple times when we kind of broke down, per se, and kind of lost focus a bit. …I think that’s just going to give us even more momentum and hunger to go into state, hopefully get another opportunity and take it from them.”

Senior middle blocker Kylie Leopard chipped in with six kills. Senior setter Dani Sparks distributed 31 assists.

Sophomore outside hitter Audrey Flanagan had 14 kills to lead Mira Costa, which will be seeking its 16th CIF title in its 27th finals appearance. Sophomore outside hitter Simone Roslon contributed 11 kills, and senior opposite Chloe Hynes and senior middle blocker Rachel Moglia each had seven kills.

“The history here is incredible,” Mira Costa coach Cameron Green said. “It’s like no other program in the country, so we’re trying to uphold that tradition. We have a lot to live up to.”