VENGEANCE DENIED: H.W. KNOCKED OUT : CORONA DEL MAR 3, H.-W. 0.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

Ever since its loss in the Southern Section finals last week, the Harvard-Westlake girls' volleyball team looked forward to what seemed to be an inevitable rematch with Bishop Montgomery.

Now, the Wolverines will never know how they might've fared.

With its own trio of powerful hitters, Corona del Mar blitzed Harvard-Westlake 15-8, 15-3, 15-7 in the semifinals of the CIF Division III Southern California Regionals at Harvard-Westlake.

The third-seeded Sea Kings (22-10) avenged a loss to the second-seeded Wolverines (25-7) in the Southern Section semifinals, as well as a tournament loss earlier this season, and advanced to Tuesday's regional final against top-seeded Bishop Montgomery.

``They just outplayed us in every aspect of the game,'' Harvard-Westlake coach Jess Quiroz said. ``They came out fired up and we came out flat. There isn't much more to it than that.''

The Wolverines were outplayed at the net even though they held a distinct height advantage. Corona del Mar's middle blockers, Meghan Gallagher and Lindsey Anstandig, and outside hitter Dimitra Havriluk pounded the Wolverines with spikes, and the Sea Kings also displayed a finesse game, dinking balls to open areas on the court.

``They did a lot of things well,'' said Harvard-Westlake middle blocker Courtney Schultz, who totaled 14 kills and 16 digs and at times was the Wolverines' only consistent hitter. ``They can go all over the court, and every time we tried to adjust, they just adjusted, too.''

The first game couldn't have been much closer. Neither team held more than a two-point lead until, with the score tied 7-7, Corona del Mar's Jacqueline Becker served seven consecutive points. Havriluk added a spike on game point.

The Sea Kings stunned the Wolverines by starting the second game with 10 consecutive points. Going back to the first game, Corona del Mar won 20 of 21 points. Later, Becker served the final four points of the game.

``This team showed a lot of heart, and I think that's what we may have been missing the last time,'' Corona del Mar coach Steve Conti said. ``We had already lost to this team twice, so our girls had a lot of motivation.''

Harvard-Westlake started strongly in the third game, thanks to three Corona del Mar hitting errors, and led 5-2 when the Sea Kings took control. Two aces from Havriluk served as bookends for a 7-0 streak.

A kill from Schultz stopped the run, and the Wolverines got a spark from outside hitter Anna Nesser, who came off the bench to total 16 digs in the match, but it was too late.

``Anna did a good job out there, and we needed that because it seemed like Courtney was the only one swinging out there,'' Quiroz said. ``But give the credit to Corona, they played almost a flawless game.''