Dominant Marymount High girls volleyball is

Its campus and enrollment are tiny, but Marymount High is a giant in the world of high faculty volleyball and this 12 months’s squad appears to be like to have the expertise to compete for a championship.

The Sailors took first place out of 64 groups at the celebrated Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas, taking down rival Sierra Canyon, 21-25, 25-15, 25-12, in the ultimate on Sept. 20. Senior hitter and Washington commit Sammy Destler was named the event’s most useful participant.

Marymount didn’t drop a set en route to the Hawaiian Island Labor Day Classic title in Hilo in late August. Last weekend in Phoenix, the Sailors superior to the championship match of the Platinum Division at the Nike Tournament of Champions Southwest, falling to reigning Southern Section Division 1 champion Mater Dei. The two applications might meet again in the CIF playoffs in November.

For those conserving rating, that makes three finals and two titles at three tournaments in three different states over 4 weeks against the best competitors in the nation — just the best way head coach Cari Klein likes it.

“Winning Durango was huge … and very fun,” said Klein, who reached the 700-win plateau early this season, her twenty eighth at the all-girls Catholic faculty with 350 college students across the road from UCLA. “These last two years we’ve gotten better the second day. Then playing TOC right after is a tough turnaround. It’s a lot of travel and a lot of volleyball.”

Three Sailors joined Destler on the all-tournament group in Durango: senior setter Olivia Penske (dedicated to Georgetown), junior hitter Makenna Barnes (an early Northwestern commit who has pounded a team-best 217 kills) and junior center/reverse hitter and Stanford seaside commit Katelyn Oerlemans, who leads the group with 63 blocks.

The roster also options senior center blocker and Southern Methodist commit Elle Vandeweghe, senior center blocker Frankie Jones (Brown), senior exterior hitter Presley Jones (Amherst), senior libero Declan Eastman (Rice) and senior reverse hitter Grace Jamison (Lafayette).

Marymount misplaced to Mater Dei in one of the best finals in event historical past (28-26 in the third set) at Durango one 12 months in the past.

Girls’ volleyball coach Cari Klein has racked up more than 700 wins during her 28 seasons at Marymount High.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

“People don’t realize how few students we have or how academically-oriented it is,” Klein said. “Our girls have their books out in between every game. They’re studying on buses, on trains, in hallways … any chance they get to do schoolwork.”

Having performed the game herself (she was a state MVP at Irvine High in 1988 then an All-West Coast Conference hitter at Pepperdine), Klein calls for a lot of her gamers, but she also tries to make the daily routine enjoyable, price getting up at the crack of daybreak. Her motto is a onerous observe makes an simple recreation.

Destler, who began enjoying for Klein’s Sunshine Volleyball Club when she was 8, takes that message to coronary heart. After Marymount was dealt its first loss at Redondo Union on Sept 2, she acknowledged: “We have practice at 5:45 a.m. tomorrow and I have to like it.”

The Sailors (29-3) are off to their best start since the 2021 group that completed 35-0, successful 92 of 100 units in the method, and earned Klein PrepVolleyball.com national high faculty coach of the 12 months honors.

Of the 20 gamers on varsity, eight are seniors and 9 are juniors.

“This team is similar to the 2021 team,” Klein said. “What’s different is that those seniors four years ago were so hungry because they lost their junior year to COVID-19.”

Marymount’s longest drought between part finals appearances in Klein’s tenure is 5 seasons (2013 to 2017), so the group is about due. She also desires to add another participant of the 12 months to those she has already mentored — Haley Jorgensborg (2001); Stesha Selsky (2002 and 2003); Kelly Irvin (2005); Lauren Greskovics-Fuller (2011); and Elia Rubin (2021).

“There are nine or 10 teams in our section that could really give us a match,” said Klein, who has steered the Sailors to 10 Southern Section titles (including a file six in a row from 2001 to 2006), eight regional crowns and seven state championships since taking over this system in 1998. “Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Sierra Canyon, Newport Harbor, Santa Margarita, Redondo, Mira Costa, Harvard-Westlake, Mater Dei — all very hard to beat. And if you get to the next level, there are four San Diego schools that are really strong too. CIF is stacked.”

In addition to the postseason success, Marymount has received 24 league titles under Klein. To add to that complete, it must beat Sierra Canyon, which defeated the Sailors thrice last season. The first of the faculties’ two Mission League conferences is Monday evening in Chatsworth.

In one regard, a part title in 2025 could be sweeter than the others for Klein because she misplaced her home in the Palisades fire in January, as did some of her gamers. She has been dwelling in Playa del Rey with her husband, former Palisades High quarterback Perry Klein.

“We’ve all had to deal with it already, but a lot of girls in the program have been affected and the younger club players as well,” she said. “It’s a pretty emotional year for Marymount.”