Mira Costa girls volleyball thrives at Nike TOC

With the regular season winding down, Mira Costa's girls volleyball team traveled to Arizona last week for another test, this time in the Nike Tournament of Champions.

The Mustangs swept their three poolplay matches Friday, and then defeated Millennium (Arizona) and Mater Dei on Saturday before losing to Cornerstone Christian of Texas in the finals.

Mira Costa played without senior outside hitter Drew Wright, who returned home after Friday's matches for her ACT test Saturday.

“We beat Mater Dei in the semifinals in three (sets), so that was a huge win,” Mira Costa coach Cam Green said. “We didn't have Drew and we still haven't played them at full strength.”

“The girls are gritty, they find ways to win games. We were down in some games, but they came back and it was cool to watch them.”

Mira Costa has another big week on tap. Tuesday, the Mustangs will host Palos Verdes in a Bay League match.

The teams went five sets in their first meeting on Sept. 15 with the Mustangs winning.

Also, Mira Costa and Redondo will host the Varsity Molten Power Classic on Friday and Saturday.

“I definitely think we're battled test,” Green said. “We put ourselves in some tough predicaments with a tough schedule, but I think that's going to help us leading into the playoffs.

“We still have some work to do. We haven't played our best volleyball in awhile, and it will be nice to put together a second-half run playing at the highest level.”

Redondo cross country enjoys strong performance

Redondo's boys cross country team finished first Saturday with 73 points in the Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach.

Aaron Thomas posted the fifth-best individual time of 15 minutes, 4.2 seconds.

In the girls race, the Sea Hawks were second (115 points) and South (226) was fifth.

Redondo's Lyla Fedio (17:17.8) had the best individual time.

South's Karissa Kira (18:07.9) and Chloe Esponda (18:09.0) finished sixth and seventh, respectively.