Newport with a broom effect

NEWPORT BEACH — It is often the least noticed aspect of the game.

As integral as passing is to a team’s offense, a successful pass is not a readily kept statistic like its counterparts the dig, assist and kill.

Passing draws the most focus in practice of the Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball team. And, it was precise passing, that led to pinpoint sets, which were followed by crisp, thunderous kills by the Sailors Tuesday.

With each part of the offense in sync, Newport Harbor swept defending CIF Southern Section Division I-AA champion Esperanza, 25-21, 25-17, 25-23, for its sixth straight victory.

The No. 5-ranked Aztecs were the first big Sunset-League test for the No. 6-ranked Sailors (10-1, 3-0). Defending Division I state champion Los Alamitos looms on Tuesday.

But, until Thursday, when they face Marina, the Sailors will savor what senior outside hitter Megan Toman called the team’s best performance of the season.

“We really connected as a team,” said Toman, who led the Sailors with 12 kills. “It was good competition.”

Junior setter Alesha Young had 39 assists, but both her and Toman agreed passing was key to their stats.

“We’ve been working on passing and we’ve really improved a lot,” Toman said. “Passing is very important. If you don’t have good passing, you can’t have good setting and hitting. We try to give [the players passing the ball] as much glory as we can.”

Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn said juniors Cassidy Gayner, Katie Regan, five digs, and Jamie Heenan, seven digs, along with sophomore Carly Cotton, four digs, contributed heavily with their passing.

Esperanza did not make passing easy with scorching kill attempts.

“It gets me really pumped up when I see my teammates dig those hits,” said Young, who had six digs of her own. “We didn’t let a ball drop. I was trying to dig the big girl.”

Young’s passing led to 11 kills from junior Megan Munce and 10 kills from senior Katie Wells.

“We knew we had to win,” Young said.

But things were not as rosy as a sweep may let on. Newport Harbor fell behind, 10-5, in the second game on three kills and a block from the Aztecs, forcing a timeout by Glenn.

“We talked about firing it up,” Young said. “We trained all season for this.”

Toman got the streak rolling with a kill following the timeout. Regan added in an ace with two more kills from Toman. Munce blasted back-to-back kills of her own and Young capped the 11-1 run with an ace.

“Megan had some key kills in that run,” Glenn said of Toman, who had four total in the run.

The Sailors would not relinquish the lead the remainder of the game.

“We were just really focused,” Toman said. “We knew if we let up, we wouldn’t be able to come back.”

That wasn’t the last time the Sailors were forced to come back. Newport Harbor fell behind, 20-15, in the third game, forcing Glenn to call his second timeout in three points.

Wells started the rally with a quick kill and Munce added another spark. Her diving dig of an attempted tip kill that floated over two blockers led to an Esperanza hitting error.

Young set up Wells on the move for a kill to cut the lead to 20-18.

Then, Heenan hit three straight aces to give Newport Harbor the lead, 21-20, the first finding the court, the second tipping off the net and the third blasting off a back row player.

“Jamie got on that run,” Glenn said. “That was key. Our serving, passing and defense were strong.”

The Aztecs tied the game again, but never could regain the lead.

“There’s a lot of good competition in this league, you have to win your home matches,” Glenn said.

“I was a little disappointed with how we started. We missed a couple of serves early when I thought we could of jumped on them. We passed well, but we’re in our own gym so it’s a comfort zone. We can run our offense. Alesha did a fantastic job of setting.”

After taking a 7-6 lead in the first game the Sailors never trailed.

Glenn said he hopes his team, after the big victory, doesn’t have a letdown against Marina on Thursday at home at 5:30 p.m.

“We can’t come out flat,” he said.

The Sailors, who were in Division II-AA last year, now reside in Division I-AA. Los Alamitos is ranked No. 3 and now tied atop the league with the Sailors.

So, of Newport Harbor’s seven remaining league games, three will be against top-five competition, a road match against Esperanza and two against Los Alamitos, including the season finale at home.

“That’s the fun thing and the bad thing about this league,” Glenn said.