The moment of truth arrived … and Bella Jones rose to the occasion.
Leaping as high as she could from her right-side position, the Redondo Union senior angled a crosscourt kill that clipped the top of the net and dropped into the open court to complete a 12-21, 21-14, 15-13 comeback for Jones and partner Kara Namimatsu to lift the Sea Hawks to a thrilling 3-2 dual victory over defending champion Mira Costa in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 beach volleyball final Saturday afternoon at Long Beach City College.
The Bay League rivals had split the first four matches, with Redondo Union winning on the first two courts and Mira Costa prevailing on the last two, so the championship came down to Court 3, where Jones and Namimatsu were down 11-8 to the Mustangs tandem of Lily Sprague and Allyn Hilt before rallying back to take a 14-12 lead on an ace by Jones. Sprague’s spike landed on the baseline to stave off the first championship point, setting the stage for Jones’ heroics.
“I told Kara let’s go out swinging … win or lose I’m going to be aggressive,” said the teary-eyed Jones, who is headed to San Diego State to play indoor volleyball. “I was really nervous and it wasn’t the best swing, it hit the tape, but all these girls mean so much to me and I wanted to win it for them.”
It was only the second time Jones and Namimatsu had played together — the first being two days before in the semifinals.
“We had an injury so we switched our lineup on the bus for JSerra and we just went with it,” Jones confessed. “Yesterday we served and passed to each other for about an hour and that helped.”
Redondo Union’s Abby Zimmerman lofts the ball over Mira Costa’s Simone Roslon in the Southern Section Division 1 girls’ beach volleyball final.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“Our chemistry works well together and in the timeouts our coach told us to trust in each other, trust in your training,” added Namimatsu, a junior transfer from Bishop Montgomery and early USC beach volleyball commit.
The result was practically a carbon copy of the Sea Hawks’ semifinal triumph, only that time it was Abby Zimmerman and Avery Junk winning 15-13 in the third set of the deciding match on Court 1. On Saturday, the pair swept Mira Costa’s top duo of Olga Nikolaeva and Simone Roslon, 21-17, 21-14.
“This is a really big win for us and it’s really exciting to have all five matches going on at the same time,” said Zimmerman, an All-CIF junior outside hitter who is going to California for indoor. “Our coaches trusted me and Avery to go up against their best. It was just our day.”
“We beat them earlier this year which gave us confidence that we could do it but we lost to them in the finals the last two years so we knew we had to play our best,” added Junk, a senior head to Florida State to play beach with twin sister Addy, who won 22-20, 20-17 on Court 2 with partner Leah Blair.
Mira Costa juniors Audrey Flanagan and Anabelle Redaelli prevailed easily 21-11, 21-18 on Court 4 while sophomores Lerin Rosenthal and Sammy Nammack won 21-17, 25-23 on Court 5.
On March 4, Redondo Union snapped Mira Costa’s 170-match winning streak spanning over a decade (the majority of them coming in Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League play before the CIF sanctioned beach volleyball). Mira Costa won the rematch 5-0 on March 26 and was poised for a three-peat.
Saturday, however, belonged to the Sea Hawks.
A similar scenario unfolded in the first dual Saturday morning and the ending was equally dramatic as Long Beach Poly’s Simone Millsap and Alyssa Luna overcame a match point on Court 4 to win the deciding set 17-15, with Millsap serving an ace to clinch the Jackrabbits’ 3-2 triumph over Anaheim Canyon in the inaugural Division 3 final.
Long each Poly celebrates its 3-2 triumph over Anaheim Canyon in the Southern Section Division 3 girls’ beach volleyball final Saturday at Long Beach City College.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“My thought was ‘I need to get this in,’” Millsap said of her last serve against Canyon’s Erin Ly and Hannah Huang. “I just closed my eyes and envisioned it going to the left corner— and luckily it did.”
Poly’s Aleeya Salima and Lindyn Foster pulled out a 13-21, 21-17, 15-11 win on Court 1 to level the score.
“Going into the last set we knew it come down to us and I think it was about 8-8 when we heard cheering and saw everyone running over to our court that we knew for sure,” Millsap said.
“When a game’s going point by point, your goal is to get the last two,” said Luna, who was called up from JV to play with Millsap in the third round of the playoffs. “Our indoor team won CIF in November so this is extra special.”
The second match of Saturday’s championship tripleheader pitted two Long Beach schools against each other and again it came down to Court 4, where Wilson sophomore Iyla Alvarado and junior Jane Morrison prevailed 21-19, 18-21, 15-11 over Millikan’s Mikayla Brumbelow and Johanna Swerdloff to secure the title for the Bruins.
Moments later, Rams juniors Sophia Orbiso and Aubrey Greene pulled out a 21-17, 17-21, 21-19 win on Court 2 but by then Wilson had already clinched. Millikan was trying to avenge 3-2 and 4-1 losses in Moore League play.
Long Beach Wilson’s Sadie Calderone is defended at the net by Millikan’s Bethany Arnold in the Division 2 final Saturday at Long Beach City College.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“It was 2-1 at that point, but I was like ‘we need to do this!,” Morrison said. “It helps having people there supporting me. Even though we’d beaten them twice this is the finals and we knew it could go either way.”
“No matter what’s going on with the other matches, we want to win ours,” Alvarado added. “This is our second year playing together, we have good chemistry, we talk strategy and pride ourselves on being mentally stronger than the other team.”