Serra Continues Its Recent Domination of Mira Mesa in Field Hockey

SAN DIEGO —  For the fifth time this season, local high school field hockey powers Mira Mesa and Serra faced each other this week.

The outcome went according to form, as Serra picked up its fourth consecutive victory in the series, winning, 1-0, during a weekend tournament in Orange County.

“We enjoyed playing Serra,” Mira Mesa Coach Jean Palmer said Sunday. “It’s always a good game. A lot of time, the stats are in our favor, but they put the goals in the cage.”

In the first match this season, Mira Mesa won, 5-2, to snap Serra’s 104-game winning streak. But Serra won the second match, 2-0, and then won the City Eastern League championship with a 3-2 overtime victory in a special 1-game tiebreaker.

And Serra defeated Mira Mesa, 2-1, for the San Diego Section championship.

In addition to Mira Mesa and Serra, San Marcos and Rancho Buena Vista sent teams to the tournament, which was sponsored by the U.S. Field Hockey Assn. There also was a combined team from San Pasqual and Fallbrook.

When Poway, San Diego’s best girls’ high school volleyball team, played Mira Costa in the first round of the Southern California Regional Division I playoffs Tuesday, the Titans weren’t playing your average high school team.

Volleyball is a tradition at Mira Costa, which is in Manhattan Beach. The Mustangs have played in the state championship game 4 times in the last 7 years under Coach Dae Lea Aldrich, winning the state title in 1982 and ’85.

Mira Costa, without a senior on the team, is 24-1 this season and ranked fifth in the nation by Volleyball Monthly.

Mira Costa beat Poway, 15-0, 13-15, 15-11, 15-7, but the Titans gained some attention.

“Poway could have won the Southern Section 3-A title,” Aldrich said. “No doubt. They are a good, young team. (Amy) Boyer is a great setter.”

Mira Costa’s only loss this season was to Irvine, the nation’s No. 3 team, in the Southern Section 5-A final. Mira Costa had to get by the Southern Section’s 3-A winner, Sunny Hills, to play Poway. It did, winning in 3 games.

San Diego teams apparently still have not reached the level of Los Angeles and Orange County teams.

“Somebody from San Diego has got to break through,” Poway Coach Lisa Reis said. “I was hoping this team would do it.”

Poway finished the season 25-1.

Here’s to the winners: Some San Diego County athletes have built remarkable streaks during the fall sports season.

When Francis Parker won the Division III volleyball title, Heidi West became the first player this decade to have played on a San Diego Section championship volleyball team in each of her 4 high school seasons.

And Coronado’s 11-9 victory over Poway for the section water polo championship kept five of its players’ San Diego Section winning streaks intact. Seniors Sepand Zarrabi, Rob Williams, Brian Kissell, Allan Wing and Tim Thiele led a Coronado team that was 19-0 in San Diego County last year and 18-0 in the county this season.

Williams and Thiele each scored twice in the championship victory over Poway, and Kissell added another.