PREP GIRLS VOLLEYBALL: La Costa Canyon reaches seventh straight title match

By TERRY MONAHAN - Staff Writer | Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:41 PM PST ∞

La Costa Canyon High's Katie Fuller puts a shot past Poway's Maddie Dahms in section playoffs. (Photo by Bill Wechter - Staff photographer)

LA COSTA ---- Almost a year in the making, the expected happened.

Once again.

For the seventh consecutive season, the La Costa Canyon High girls volleyball team has reached the CIF San Diego Section Division I championship match.

Thanks to a 25-20, 25-14, 25-17 victory over No. 4-seeded Poway in Wednesday's semifinal, the top-seeded Mavericks will return to the finals with the same goal ---- win it all.

Click here for boxscore

Not surprisingly, the Mavericks' quest for a fifth-straight section championship goes through rival and second-seeded Torrey Pines. The two teams meet in the championship game Saturday at Canyon Crest Academy.

Torrey Pines downed Carlsbad 25-21, 25-22, 25-18 in the other semifinal match.

"We wanted Torrey Pines all along, and I know they wanted us too,'' La Costa Canyon senior Lydia Rudnick said. "They're probably just as happy to see us in the finals as we are to see them."

La Costa Canyon (32-1), which lost only to Santa Margarita in the Redondo Power Classic this season, owns a pair of hard-fought victories over Torrey Pines during Palomar League play.

"We want to five-peat,'' Rudnick added. "There's no one other than your rival you'd like to do that to. They want to win the only match that they think counts this year."

Poway (19-13), behind the play of senior Maddie Dahms, trailed just 17-16 in the first game before the Mavericks put on one of their patented spurts to the end.

La Costa Canyon, which played without 2007 section player of the year Natalie Hagglund, who is nursing a sore back, took the lead for good at 13-12 in that game.

The Mavs never trailed in the second game and took the lead for good in the third game at 3-2 on one of Katie Fuller's match-high 16 kills.

Poway pressed at the end of the third game, but came no closer than six points, 22-16, before succumbing.

"Nothing bothers these girls," LCC coach Pat McDougall said. "They don't know how to panic under pressure.

"The one thing I want is for them to be able to laugh on the court. They play their best when they're just having fun.

"We don't practice hard, and as best I can tell, they just learned how to relax under pressure."

Rudnick finished with nine kills and three blocks for the Mavericks, while teammate Natalie Loos contributed seven kills and five blocks as La Costa Canyon forged a huge 39-16 edge in kills against the Titans.

"LCC doesn't play like most teams,'' Poway coach Steve Lamb said. "They're always in-system. You can't really knock them out of system because they jump right back into it.

"They have a lot of firepower and one of the deepest benches around.

"That's why they're one of the best teams in the state and one of the best teams in the nation."

Dahms led Poway with six kills. Leah Fisher had five blocks to go with two kills.

McDougall said he's hoping to have Hagglund back for Saturday's match against Torrey Pines.

"This match against Poway was easier than I thought it would be, especially since we went four games with them in September," McDougall said. "Now all we have to do is concentrate on the job at hand."

Contact staff writer Terry Monahan at (760) 739-6648 or tmonahan@nctimes.com.