No one saw this coming... but San Pedro High girls volleyball made sure they all believe it happened.

The gym was abuzz with uncontrollable excitement the second the ball fell harmlessly to the floor after a vicious kill by senior outside hitter Allison Kittell capped off a surprisingly easy 25-16. 25-12, 25-19 victory over visiting Narbonne of Harbor City, which ended five years of frustration and a nine-year losing streak their rivals, gaining retribution from an earlier three-game defeat at the hands of the Gauchos.

"I'm speechless," San Pedro senior outside hitter Paige Peterson said with glee. "We played our hearts out and I'm just filled with joy. I love my team!"

The first set began with junior middle blocker Tracy Folchi asserting her authority with three opening kills that sparked San Pedro (12-7-1 overall, 6-2 league) to an early 5-1 lead, and the Pirates would cruise from there, serving eight aces to pull away in the middle portion of the set.

"For me, this really set the tone on a good start," said Folchi, who led the Pirates with 11 kills and four aces. "I really love when we kill the other team in the same spot as before, it really helped us gain our confidence and keep the momentum going."

San Pedro dominated the second set and led wire-to-wire, scoring eight of the first nine points and bolting to leads as 16-4 and 19-5 before the latter part of the set was capped off by three straight aces by sophomore libero Jordan Freitas and kills from Kittell and Folchi.

Studying game film from Narbonne's 25-23, 25-19, 25-23 victory over San Pedro on September 18 was critical in the rematch, according to Peterson.

"It prepared us a lot knowing their strong and weak points of their game," Peterson said.

The only real drama of the match would come in the third set, as the Gauchos (9-7-2, 6-2) desperately tried to keep pace with the emotionally-charged Pirates, rallying from a 14-9 deficit to tie it up at 16-16, but three straight aces from senior defensive specialist Reanna Pele would stretch San Pedro's edge to 20-16. Narbonne would close to within 20-19 before the Pirates scored the final five points to seal the victory.

Once the post-game handshake was over, several Pirate fans, including members of the football team, would join in on the volleyball team's triumph with a rock concert-like celebration, providing a feel good moment for the school three days after the football team opened off Marine League with a disheartening 28-24 loss at Narbonne this past Friday.

"We really came out strong today," Folchi said. "We were mentally and physically there and we really put in a lot of effort and hard work into these games. I'm proud of this team."

Kittell had 10 kills for San Pedro, while Freitas had 11 digs and three aces. Pele finished with five aces, and Peterson had nine digs. Sophomore setter Brianna Corallo had seven assists and three aces, and sophomore starting setter Katie Bentovoja had 14 assists as well for the Pirates, who next hosts Gardena on Thursday.

While most people were surprised by the outcome, the Pirates were far from surprised.

"I was certainly very excited, but not surprised," Kittell said. "I know first hand of how good of a team we are and how hard we wanted this. I've known all along we were capable of playing like we did and I'm ecstatic that we won this match the way we did."

Guess you can say now that the Pirates definitely saw this coming.