Mater Dei girls volleyball loses to Sierra Canyon in Division 1 final

NORWALK – Sierra Canyon’s hand was a royal flush of height, power and plenty of aces.

Mater Dei hung in there and made some great runs, but it lost to Sierra Canyon in four sets, 23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-21, in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 girls volleyball final Saturday at Cerritos College.

Sierra Canyon delivered 10 service aces. USC-committed outside hitter McKenna McIntosh, a junior, and Nebraska-committed middle blocker Kendall Omoruyi had 13 kills each. Omoruyi, 6-4 junior, also had six blocks, and 6-3 junior opposite hitter Eva Jeffries had five blocks.

Sierra Canyon won its fourth CIF-SS girls volleyball championship. The Trailblazers lost to Mater Dei in last year’s Division 1 final. Mater Dei also won the Division 1 title in 2023.

With the number of excellent non-seniors on both teams’ rosters, a Mater Dei-Sierra Canyon Division 1 final in 2026 seems very possible.

A rematch might come sooner. Mater Dei (30-5) and Sierra Canyon (35-3), like all of the volleyball teams that reach the CIF-Ss finals, qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs. Regional brackets will be announced Sunday.

It’s likely that Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon will be on opposite sides of the SoCal Regional top-division bracket, making a Mater Dei-Sierra Canyon rematch a reasonable expectation in a regional final on Nov. 15.

Both teams went into Saturday with 16-match winning streaks.

Mater Dei was led by Layli Ostovar, last year’s CIF-SS Division 1 and Orange County player of the year. Ostovar, a senior outside hitter who will sign next week with USC, had 15 kills. Several of her nine digs were of the “how did she get to that ball?” variety.

Monarchs junior outside hitter Westley Matavao, a UCLA commit, was great as usual, too. She had 15 kills and seven digs.

Mater Dei junior middle blocker Emma Kingston was a big factor with 14 kills.

Monarchs coach Dan O’Dell said afterward that Saturday’s match was Kingston’s best of the season.

Monarchs senior setter Sam Capinin, who will sign with Cal State Bakersfield, contributed 12 assists.

The momentum swings in the match were frequent and dramatic.

The first set was tight throughout. Mater Dei took a 4-1 lead, Sierra Canyon took the lead a couple of times after that, and the Monarchs scored the set’s final two points on kills by Sierra Robinson and Matavao.

Mater Dei had a 16-12 lead in the second set. The Trailblazers put together a 6-0 run that included three aces by Maddie Zaragoza to pull ahead on their way to a 25-23 victory.

A Monarchs 8-0 run in the third set gave them an 18-15 lead. Sierra Canyon then surged ahead and pulled off a 25-20 win.

Sierra Canyon took a quick 4-0 lead in the fourth set. Mater Dei rallied to take a 7-6 lead. The Trailblazers scored nine of the set’s final 15 points to win the set 25-21 and take the match.

“It was wild to me how many momentum swings there were,” O’Dell said. “I felt like every time one team had it the other team came back. Both teams came into this thinking you’ve got to serve tough to have a chance.”