Kaitlyn Herweg and Ella Olson will play college volleyball in other states.
For high school volleyball, they decided to stay home.
Herweg is a senior libero at Los Alamitos, the No. 3 team this week in the Orange County rankings. Olson is a senior outside hitter for No. 4 Newport Harbor. Both are elite players who earned All-Orange County recognition last season.
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The Orange County private school world is an attractive place for such athletes in many sports. Herweg and Olson, certainly good enough to thrive anywhere, spent their four high school years playing at their local public school.
“I’m glad I’m at Los Al,” said Herweg, who committed to the University of Indiana. “It’s definitely a different and great experience. We’ve all come together as a team and we’ve clicked pretty well.”
Olson will attend the University of Texas, which, like Indiana, advanced deep into last year’s NCAA women’s tournament.
She said playing at her local public school has been meaningful.
“The community aspect of being at Newport Harbor is something I couldn’t really get anywhere else,” Olson said. “We’re all from the same area, we have to work with what we have and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
That’s the beauty of Orange County high school sports. Different paths can lead to the same rewards.
NOTES
• Newport Harbor volleyball coach Pat Eaton talked about Olson after the Sailors’ five-set loss to Los Alamitos on Wednesday: “It doesn’t take an educated eye to see that she can do things that are hard to teach,” Eaton said. “Her leadership impressed me more than anything else tonight. You know what you’re going to get from her physically, but then she always gets her teammates to play at a higher level.”
• Maybe Orange County’s No. 2-ranked girls volleyball team beating the No. 1 team should not seem dramatic. But given how No. 1 Mater Dei had dominated while going undefeated through 25 matches, Santa Margarita’s four-set win over Mater Dei on Wednesday has an “upset” feel to it. Santa Margarita won the first two sets, 27-25, 25-19, Mater Dei won the third set, 25-19, and Santa Margarita took the match with a 28-26 win in the fourth set. …
• The Massey Ratings for the CIF Southern Section girls volleyball teams will be used to place teams into playoff divisions and to seed the teams. In the latest Massey Ratings, Santa Margarita was ranked No. 9 overall. The CIF-SS might make Division 1 an eight-team playoff bracket this year, or like last year it could be a 12-team bracket. Santa Margarita, which features 6-4 outside hitter Ireland Real (Texas commit) and 5-11 outside Kate Jackson (USC), has solidified its position as a Division 1 playoff team. …
• The football schedule for Friday includes a matchup of the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the Orange County Top 25: No. 1 Santa Margarita vs. No. 2 Mater Dei at Saddleback College. Thirty years ago, No. 1 playing No. 2 was such a rare deal that we would publish a chart showing the few times we had a No. 1 vs. No. 2 football game here. With the Trinity League often containing the county’s top two teams, a No. 1 vs. No. 2 game is a regular event. …
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• Yorba Linda’s football team had to forfeit four nonleague wins for CIF violations that involved undue influence (“undue influence” is CIF parlance for “recruiting”) and lack of administrative oversight. It’s always sad that the majority of athletes on a team, athletes who did everything the right way and worked hard to get those wins, suffer because a few people messed up. …
• Bravo League football teams are 27-3 going into this week, the first week of league play. Four of the teams are 5-0: Capistrano Valley, Corona del Mar, La Habra and Villa Park. …
• The Mission Viejo (4-1) and San Clemente (5-0) football teams appear to be markedly better than the Alpha League’s other four teams: Edison, Los Alamitos, San Juan Hills and Yorba Linda. …
• Senior running back Kamden Tillis of Los Alamitos is out for the remainder of the season because of injury. Tillis was All-Orange County third team last season and has committed to San Diego State. He is the Griffins’ leading rusher this season with 294 yards. Los Alamitos, last year’s CIF-SS Division 2 champion, is 0-5 going into its Alpha League opener against 4-1 San Juan Hills. …
• Teams qualify for the CIF-SS football playoffs by being among the top three finishers in six-team leagues, which is most common in Orange County, or among the top four finishers in a nine-team, such as the Tango League. A team that finishes with an overall record of .300 or better is eligible for at-large berth. The higher a team’s rating at HSratings.com the better its chances of receiving an at-large berth. …
• The No. 1 seed in a playoff division can’t be an at-large team, according to the CIF-SS bylaws. In football, the Division 1 bracket might include eight teams this season like it did last year. San Clemente is No. 9 and Servite is No. 10 this week in the CIF-SS rankings by HSratings.com. …
• The CIF-SS football playoff brackets for 11-player football will be released Nov. 1 at 10 a.m. …
• The cross country meets that are coming up: Central Park Invitational in Huntington Beach on Saturday; Clovis Invitational in Fresno at Woodward Park, site of the CIF State Championships, on Oct. 10; the Orange County Championships at Oak Canyon Park, Oct. 17; and the Mt. SAC Invitational, Oct. 24 at Mt. San Antonio College, site of the CIF-SS Championships. …
• The CIF-SS uses the Massey Ratings for boys water polo to place teams into playoff divisions. This week’s first release of those ratings have five Orange County teams in the top 10: 1. Newport Harbor; 2. JSerra; 7. Santa Margarita; 8. Corona del Mar; 9. Laguna Beach.
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