By Brandon Petersen
There was nothing warm about Warm Waters Jetty Beach in Carlsbad Saturday where the Westcliff women's beach volleyball team captured its third straight Cal Pac championship.
It rained during Westcliff's 5-0 sweep of Benedictine at noon, and a ferocious wind swept through for the final match of the day between bitter rivals, Saint Katherine and the NAIA No. 6 Warriors.
Even though the Firebirds upended the reigning champs, 3-2, with three-game wins in each of matches one through three, Westcliff won the tiebreaker thanks specifically to Ava Himstreet and Amanda Ferreira.
Because the 5s won in just two games, 21-19, 25-23, the Warriors had the tiebreaker margin they needed to claim the Cal Pac crown for the third straight year.
First-year head coach Hannah Matt and Westcliff staff huddled long after the match was over, while USK's SID was on the phone with Cal Pac league commissioner Don Ott.
Eventually the news came down, and the Warriors' player huddle exploded in celebration.
While the team danced just a few feet away, Matt was asked what she was feeling.
"Just about every emotion you can feel," she said with a smile. "We had to wait quite a while after the end of the last game to find out who was actually the conference champs, so there was a lot of suspense.
"I feel there was just a weight lifted off my shoulders, really proud of these girls, and just really happy."
Marcella Rodriguez and Brooke Scheidle struggled in Game 1 of their match (16-21) , only to bounce back in Game 2 (21-18), but eventually came up shy in Game 3, 10-15.
Sabrina Galassi and Diamonique Brogan had a similarly frustrating match and fell, 21-17, 17-21, 15-6.
Serena Comer and Izzy Duchaine were just two points from winning, but fell, 21-16, 19-21, 15-13.
Faith Webb and Chloe Johnson also went to three games, but came up with the win for the Warriors, 19-21, 21-10, 15-8.
In the 6s, Sammie Swanson and Ella Beck picked up a tidy 21-11, 21-16 victory.
"I knew it was going to be a tough fight," Matt said. "Before the game, we were talking about the conditions, and there was like 30 mile-per-hour wind gusts today. Wind is a great equalizer. It can take really good teams and make them look not so good. We knew that going in.
"We ended up switching just one win and one loss, so we went 2-3 instead of 3-2 this time. So, it was tough, but our girls gave it their best effort, and we played as a team, so I'm pretty proud of that."
The Warriors needed just two games in each match to sweep past the Redhawks earlier in the day.
Scheidle and Rodriguez won 21-7, 21-14, while Galassi and Brogan won 21-14, 25-23.
Duchaine and Comer won 21-6, 21-15, and Webb and Johnson won 21-5, 21-6.
Himstreet and Ferreira won 21-11, 21-8, and Swanson and Beck won 21-14, 21-6.
Next up, the Warriors will face off in a dual with Hope International 9 a.m. Thursday in preparation for the NAIA West Regional Qualifiers, which Westcliff will host mid-April in Chula Vista.
"We've definitely got some work to do in the wind," Matt said. "I'm not expecting that we're going to have perfect weather for the rest of the season. We've definitely got some hard work to do there.
"Today our focus was to just stay present, and not be thinking about rings, or championships. And that will be the same goal at our next tournament."
