Newport Harbor outlasts Mira Costa to stay undefeated in boys’ volleyball
After his team clinched at least a share of its third consecutive Sunset League title on Tuesday night, Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball coach Rocky Ciarelli discussed playing with consistency.
He said that it is tough to play at a high level for long periods of time. The Sailors have excelled in doing so for much of this season, but on Wednesday, the top-ranked program in the nation by MaxPreps.com experienced a rare hiccup.
Newport Harbor easily claimed the first two sets in its nonleague match with Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll, but then the Sailors left the door open.
With that being said, the Sailors still had the resolve to fight back, taking a 25-16, 25-15, 25-27, 25-22 victory over the visiting Mustangs to improve to 26-0.
“I think it will teach us a little lesson,” Ciarelli said. “The first two [sets], we won pretty easy. Mira Costa is a winning program, and they’re not going to just lie down.
“They started playing better the third and fourth game. There were some things that we could have done better, but we still were playing pretty well. There were just a couple of things here and there that I think could have made a difference.”
Wednesday’s contest featured a rematch of two teams that went five sets against each other in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs last season.
Ciarelli joked that he was not smart enough to set up a CIF tune-up this late in the season, but the match served that purpose nonetheless.
“We’ve seen when you don’t put it together, and it’s just an awful feeling when you come up short,” Newport Harbor senior middle blocker Ethan Talley said, calling the match a wake-up call. “I think going into CIF, our mentality is that every set, every point matters, and you can’t take anything for granted.”
Talley, an Ohio State commit, had 11 kills, 4½ blocks and two service aces.
UCLA-bound outside hitter Cole Pender led the Sailors with 17 kills. Junior outside hitter Dayne Chalmers pounded out 15 kills, and junior outside hitter Jack Higgs added 13 kills and three blocks.
Junior setter Joe Karlous handed out 48 assists to go with 2½ blocks.
Higgs thought that the Sailors responded well to the challenge of having to stop a team that had found its rhythm.
“I’ve heard things where [the Mustangs] are in a league where they are used to winning, and when they’re caught off guard, when other teams fight against them, they turn it around,” he said.
“We battled. I think that’s the main thing that happened tonight is we battled, and we got the win.”
UC Santa Barbara-bound senior Max Cajuste led the Mustangs (18-5) with 14 kills and two blocks.
Senior outside hitter Dane Johnson added nine kills. Sophomore setters Jack Walmer and Luke Snyder each had 15 assists in running Mira Costa’s 6-2 offense.
“We were down two sets to none, and we just brought it together as a team,” Cajuste said of the Mustangs’ rally to get back into the match. “We fought. We built our chemistry. As a team, we talked, and we got some points. We got them rattled, we got our momentum going, and that’s how it started.”
Newport Harbor has two league matches left to complete an undefeated regular season. The Sailors host Marina (8-15-1, 0-8 in league) on Friday. They travel to Los Alamitos (17-10, 4-4) on Tuesday for their final league contest.
“At the end of the day, I think we’re the best team in the nation right now,” Talley said. “If we play that way and we come together as a team like we have been, there is nobody that can beat us.”
Twitter: @ProfessorTurner
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