Rivals vie for title

No. 1 versus No. 2. Just the way it ought to be.

Throughout the course of the 2006 prep girls’ volleyball season, Laguna Beach and Corona del Mar have been the top two-ranked teams in the CIF Southern Section Division II-AA poll.

Saturday the longtime rivals and two of the sports most successful programs will decide who, indeed, is No. 1.

The second-ranked Breakers (25-5) and top-ranked Sea Kings (22-6) will play for the Division II-AA title at 1 p.m. at Cypress College’s main gymnasium.

It’ll be the third meeting of the season between the schools, with each owning a September victory over the other.

Laguna advanced to Saturday’s final by coming back from two games down Tuesday to defeat host St. Lucy’s, 24-26, 20-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-9, in a packed, boisterous gym at the Glendora-based school.

Corona del Mar, meanwhile, moved on to Saturday’s final by surviving host Ayala Tuesday, 25-23, 25-23, 25-18.

Inconsistent play plagued Laguna in the first three games against St. Lucy’s although the Breakers, who defeated University and South Hills to open the playoffs, regrouped in time to pull out the win.

Laguna led, 20-15 in the first game but ended up losing it, 26-24. The teams were tied at 9-9 in the second game before the Regents (22-5) pulled away to a 25-20 win. In the third game, the Breakers trailed 4-0 but took the lead for good at 15-14 en route to their first win. The teams were tied up at 15 in the fourth game and Laguna ended up winning it on a service error. The Breakers never trailed in the decisive fifth game.

Dana Hutchinson had 23 kills and 13 digs, Zoe Garrett 17 kills, Alex Palmer 32 assists and Mychaela Miller 24 assists.

“As the scores would indicate, we were not real consistent,” Laguna Coach Lance Stewart said. “In the three games that we won, we played better, got our ball control straightened out and took care of business.”

Saturday will mark the fourth time that Corona del Mar and Laguna, Pacific Coast League rivals until this year, have met in a CIF-SS title match. This last time it happened — 1992 — Stewart was girls’ head coach at Corona del Mar and Sea Kings Coach Bill Christiansen was an assistant coach to Mike Soylular at Laguna.

Corona del Mar won that ’92 final.

“It’s the way it should be, Laguna and Corona in the finals,” Stewart said.

“They are a real good team but we think we’re pretty good, too. It’ll all come down to who’s on top of their game Saturday.”