sammy destler

Its campus and enrollment are tiny, but Marymount High is a giant in the world of high school volleyball and this year’s squad looks to have the talent to compete for a championship.

The Sailors took first place out of 64 teams at the prestigious Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas, taking down rival Sierra Canyon, 21-25, 25-15, 25-12, in the final on Sept. 20. Senior hitter and Washington commit Sammy Destler was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

Marymount did not drop a set en route to the Hawaiian Island Labor Day Classic title in Hilo in late August. Last weekend in Phoenix, the Sailors advanced 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 programs could meet again in the CIF playoffs in November.

For those keeping score, that makes three finals and two titles at three tournaments in three different states over four weeks against the best competition in the nation — just the way head coach Cari Klein likes it.

Marymount High volleyball players, from left to right, Makenna Barnes, Sammy Destler and Elle Vandeweghe clap hands during a match.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

“Winning Durango was huge … and very fun,” said Klein, who reached the 700-win plateau early this season, her 28th at the all-girls Catholic school with 350 students across the street 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 team in Durango: senior setter Olivia Penske (committed to Georgetown), junior hitter Makenna Barnes (an early Northwestern commit who has pounded a team-best 217 kills) and junior middle/opposite hitter and Stanford beach commit Katelyn Oerlemans, who leads the team with 63 blocks.

The roster also features senior middle blocker and Southern Methodist commit Elle Vandeweghe, senior middle blocker Frankie Jones (Brown), senior outside hitter Presley Jones (Amherst), senior libero Declan Eastman (Rice) and senior opposite hitter Grace Jamison (Lafayette).

Marymount lost to Mater Dei in one of the best finals in tournament history (28-26 in the third set) at Durango one year ago.

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 played the sport herself (she was a state MVP at Irvine High in 1988 then an All-West Coast Conference hitter at Pepperdine), Klein demands a lot of her players, but she also tries to make the daily routine fun, worth getting up at the crack of dawn. Her motto is a hard practice makes an easy game.

Destler, who started playing for Klein’s Sunshine Volleyball Club when she was 8, takes that message to heart. After Marymount was dealt its first loss at Redondo Union on Sept 2, she stated: “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 team that finished 35-0, winning 92 of 100 sets in the process, and earned Klein PrepVolleyball.com national high school coach of the year honors.

Of the 20 players on varsity, eight are seniors and nine 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 section finals appearances in Klein’s tenure is five seasons (2013 to 2017), so the team is about due. She also wants to add another player of the year 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 record six in a row from 2001 to 2006), eight regional crowns and seven state championships since taking over the program 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 won 24 league titles under Klein. To add to that total, it must beat Sierra Canyon, which defeated the Sailors three times last season. The first of the schools’ two Mission League meetings is Monday night in Chatsworth.

In one regard, a section title in 2025 would be sweeter than the others for Klein because she lost her home in the Palisades fire in January, as did some of her players. She has been living 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.”

In an early season showdown between two of the top girls volleyball teams in the state, Redondo Union took control over the last two sets to handle Marymount 25-23, 18-25, 25-21, 25-14 and prove it is a threat for its first Southern Section championship since 2019.

The squads entered their nonleague matchup with a 22-1 combined record this fall and could meet again down the road with the stakes even higher. The Sea Hawks’ triumph was all the more impressive given that it was accomplished without libero Rowan DeVore (sidelined with flu) and senior twins Avery and Addi Junk, who are skipping the indoor season to concentrate on beach volleyball, which both are committed to play at Florida State.

California commit Abby Zimmerman was almost unstoppable, pounding a match-high 26 kills, Leah Blair (committed to play beach at Washington) had 10 kills and UC Irvine-bound Taylor Boice added seven kills for the home side. Setter Marlo Libbey had 33 assists and served three aces.

Zimmerman led her school to the beach title in the spring.

“Indoor is my favorite and we’ve put in so much work, it would be great to go out on top my last year,” Zimmerman said. “This was a solid match for us and if we can bring the same energy and fight every game we have a good chance.”

Both programs were coming off successful trips to Hawaii. Redondo Union finished runner-up to national power Byron Nelson (Texas) for the second straight season at the Ann Kang Invitational, while Marymount did not drop a set on its way to the Hawaiian Island Labor Day Classic championship Saturday in Hilo.

Junior hitter Makenna Barnes had 16 kills, Washington commit Sammy Destler added 14, Olivia Penske had 36 assists and Declan Eastman recorded 11 digs for the Sailors, who were trying to avenge a five-set defeat in the first round of the CIF SoCal Open Division regionals last fall.

“I play on the same club team as Abby and Taylor… we’re best friends,” Destler said. “This was a much-needed wake-up call for us. We have practice at 5:45 a.m. tomorrow and I have to like it. Redondo’s a whole different level than the teams we saw in Hawaii.”

Tuesday’s nonleague match not only featured many of the Southland’s most talented players, but also two of its most successful coaches in Redondo Union’s Tommy Chaffins (who passed the 900 career wins milestone last year) and Marymount’s Cari Klein (who has led her Sailors to 30 or more victories in three of the last four seasons).

Klein said the trip back from Hawaii had a little drama as the plane had engine problems and had to divert to Oahu.

Marymount was off to its hottest start since 2021 when it finished 35-0 en route to its 10th section title and seventh state crown under Klein and the No. 1 national ranking.

The schedule only gets tougher for Redondo Union (14-1), which travels to reigning Division 1 champion Mater Dei on Thursday and hosts 2022 champion Sierra Canyon next Tuesday. Marymount (9-1) will try to shake off its first loss when it hosts the Sea Hawks’ Bay League rival, Mira Costa, on Thursday.

“We’re very close on and off the court and we bonded even more in Hawaii,” Boice said. “Tonight we simply wanted it more.”