Redondo Union girls win record-setting 33rd straight victory on volleyball court
Brianna Lanktree recorded 11 kills in Redondo’s home sweep of Newport Harbor in the second round of the Division 1-AA CIF Southern Section/Ford Championships. Photo
It had been nine days since the Redondo’s girls volleyball team had played a match, but the Sea Hawk machine showed no signs of rust winning its 28th consecutive match while setting a school record for victories in a season.
Redondo’s 33rd win broke the record of 32 set in 2007 when the Sea Hawks reached the CIF finals only to lose to rival Mira Costa.
After earning a first-round bye, Coach Tommy Chaffins’ squad came out firing on all cylinders Thursday defeating visiting Newport Harbor 25-17, 25-21, 25-19 to advance to the quarterfinals where top-seeded Redondo (33-3) will travel to face No. 9 Dana Hills (25-7) Saturday in a 7 p.m. match.
Setter Norene Iosia spread the ball around recording 33 assists to go with her nine digs. Brianna Lanktree and Skylar Dykstra each had 11 kills to lead Redondo. Dykstra added 10 digs and one block, Abril Bustamante had five kills and two blocks, Hannah Mosebar added five kills, Skye Compton contributed four kills and Leilani Martinez recorded 11 digs and two aces.
The winner of the Redondo-Dana Hills match will face the winner between No. 4 Mater Dei and No. 5 Corona del Mar Tuesday in the semifinals of the Division 1-AA CIF Southern Section/Ford Championships.
On the other side of the bracket, there were two upsets Thursday, the most shocking coming when unranked Long Beach Poly (27-7) eliminated No. 3 Los Alamitos in five sets. Poly will face unranked Tesoro (27-5) which upended No. 6 Santa Margarita in four games.
Unfortunately for Mira Costa, its bid for an upset fell just short as the tenth-ranked Mustangs lost at No. 7 Orange Lutheran 25-22, 18-25, 19-25, 25-21, 20-18.
Mira Costa (19-12) seemed to gain control after going up two sets to one, but couldn’t close out the match. The Mustangs had two match points after storming back from a four-point deficit in the final set, but their heroics went for naught.
Setter Norene Iosia had 33 assists during Redondo’s record-breaking performance Thursday. Photo
Grayce Campbell led Mira Costa with 24 kills and Lexi Millington had 11 kills and two aces. Setter Corie Bain recorded 42 assists, 10 digs, three blocks and two aces while libero Carley Muller and Brooke Feld led the defense with 20 and 10 digs, respectively.
Orange Lutheran (17-3), which eliminated Mira Costa in the second round last season, now must travel to face No. 2 Marymount (30-5) in the fourth quarterfinal match.
In Division 1-A, unranked Bishop Montgomery (21-13) upset third seeded Thousand Oaks 25-13, 25-22, 25-22 to advance to the quarterfinals where the Knights will host Canyon of Anaheim (21-9) Saturday at 7 p.m.
North Torrance and South Torrance, the top two seeds in Division 2-AA, continued their quest for an all-Ocean League final with second-round wins.
It took five sets, but North (24-5) eliminated host La Reina and will host No. 10 M.L. King on Saturday. South (24-10) defeated host Alta Loma in four sets and will travel to No. 8 Santiago (22-3).
In Division 2-A, second seeded Chadwick (26-2) knocked off host Palm Springs in four sets and will play at No. 10 Arcadia (24-6) in the quarterfinals.
Vistamar (17-9) saw its run in Division 4-A end when a rally fell short in a 25-16, 25-22, 23-25, 23-25, 15-10 home loss to Archer.
CIF Southern Section semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday with the finals being held Saturday, Nov. 17 at Santiago Canyon College. Updated brackets are available at cifss.org.