Mater Dei Becomes First to Top Capistrano Valley

Mater Dei handed Capistrano Valley its first loss of the season by winning 8-15, 15-5, 15-10, 16-14 in a South Coast League girls’ volleyball match Tuesday at Mater Dei.

Mater Dei’s Katie Beauregard had 13 kills and 19 digs and teammate Lindsay Pavlik, who had three blocks, notched her 10th kill on match point to culminate a rally from a 14-10 deficit in the final game.

Mater Dei (8-3, 6-1 in league), ranked second in the Southern Section Division II-AA, lost to Capistrano Valley (14-1, 6-1) in four games in their first league meeting.

And it didn’t look very promising for the Monarchs after Rochelle Currier tallied six of her match-high 19 kills to lead the Cougars to a 15-8 victory in the first game.

“I think we were a little nervous,” Beauregard said. “But then we said we weren’t going to let them come into our house and beat us in three straight. Once we got the jitters out, we were fine.”

Capistrano Valley, ranked third in Division I-AA, didn’t look sharp as it committed eight various hitting, serving and passing errors in a stretch during Game 2, during which Mater Dei scored 14 of 15 points to seize control of the match with a 15-5 victory.

Kristen Gallup (12 kills) and Becky Warnick (nine kills, four blocks) helped the Cougars take a 10-4 lead in Game 3.

But with their home crowd spurring them on, the Monarchs charged back to win the final 11 points behind key plays by Beauregard and sophomore middle blocker Kelly Kincheloe (seven kills, five blocks) to win Game 3, 15-10, setting the stage for their final rally.