Mater Dei girls volleyball sweeps Santa Margarita to win share of league title

SANTA ANA – Early in the third set, Mater Dei senior Westley Matavao finished one of her usual heavy kills against Santa Margarita.

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Instead of the smiles and embraces that typically follow a point, a straight-faced Matavao took a couple of steps to get herself in position for the next point. No slapping fives, no group hugs.

“All business,” Matavao said later. “All business. Especially this game. It was a complete statement game.”

Mater Dei’s volleyball team swept Santa Margarita, 25-14, 25-11, 25-16, in a Trinity League match Tuesday at Mater Dei High.

It was the league finale and the final regular-season match for both teams.

Santa Margarita had handed Mater Dei its only loss of the regular season two weeks ago, beating the Monarchs in four sets at Santa Margarita High.

The Eagles and Monarchs will share the Trinity League championship with their 5-1 league records in the four-team league.

It is Mater Dei’s 10th consecutive league championship.

Mater Dei will take a 35-1 record into the CIF Southern Section volleyball playoffs that begin next week. The playoff brackets will be released Friday morning.

The Eagles (17-10) and Monarchs both seemed destined to be in Division 1 for the playoffs. The number of teams in Division 1 could be eight or 12 or somewhere in between.

Santa Margarita is ranked No. 1 this week in the Orange County girls volleyball Top 10. Mater Dei is No. 2.

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Matavao, who is committed to UCLA, is the frontrunner for Orange County player of the year.

She had seven kills and two aces in the third set.

“She put a lot on her shoulders after the loss in the last game,” said Mater Dei coach Dan O’Dell. “She really wanted to right that wrong. She came out motivated, she came out focused and she not only wanted to win tonight, she wanted to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to make a statement.’”

Mater Dei already was a good team before senior outside hitter Katherine Nowak became eligible a couple of weeks ago when the sit-out period for transfers expired. Athletes who do not make the valid change of residence required for immediate eligibility must sit out the first half of a season.

Nowak, All-Orange County third team last year at JSerra, made some great saving digs Tuesday.

“She was fantastic,” O’Dell said. “We have a lot of physical athletes And ‘Kat’ playing defense like that makes an even more balanced team.”

Mater Dei led throughout the first set and won 25-14.

The Monarchs trailed only once, 3-2, in the second set and scored the final seven points for the 25-11 victory.

Santa Margarita scored the first point of the third set, but from there it was all Mater Dei on the way to a 25-16 win.

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The match took only 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Matavao said losing to Santa Margarita was good for the Monarchs.

“Right there we said we’re going to be a better team each game,” she said.