Santa Margarita celebrates its victory over Orange Lutehran on Tuesday. Kevin Sullivan, The Register

It was bound to happen, or perhaps not, but in either case the nightmare is no more.

Santa Margarita finally won in Orange Lutheran’s gym. It happened Tuesday night in four games, 25-19, 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, to close out Trinity League play.

The No. 3 Eagles (21-9, 8-0) had clinched the outright league title for the first time in Trinity League action last week after sharing it with the No. 9 Lancers (16-7, 5-3) since 2006. However, a victory at Lutheran had eluded Santa Margarita until Tuesday night, which closed out a perfect league run for the Eagles.

Lutheran fell into a second-place tie with  No. 10 Mater Dei. The CIF seeding will be determined by a coin flip, with the loser getting a first-round road game at a No. 1 seed’s place – nobody’s version of a fun trip.

The match swung majorly in Game 3 after the teams split the opening games. Santa Margarita built a 17-4 advantage and never let go of the momentum.

In other results tonight, El Toro picked up a much needed victory over Huntington Beach in five games, 25-21, 25-12, 21-25, 19-25, 15-7, in Sea View League play.

It was much needed in that the Chargers pulled into a first-place tie with the Oilers with one match remaining. Both teams are 6-3. El Toro plays Foothill on Thursday while Huntington Beach faces Woodbridge. The Chargers shared the title with the Warriors last season. Against the Oilers on Tuesday, Christina Bauch led the Chargers with 25 kills.

More from the girls volleyball blog:

• Girls volleyball: Thursday’s recap
• Girls volleyball: Newport Harbor-Los Alamitos back on Thursday
• Girls volleyball: Tuesday’s recap
• Girls volleyball: Newport Harbor-Los Alamitos postponed
• Girls volleyball: Thursday’s recap

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