Sage Hill clips Pacifica Christian Orange County in boys’ volleyball opener

The Pacifica Christian Orange County High boys’ volleyball team visited Sage Hill School to begin the season on Tuesday.

Although both programs made the postseason a year ago, both could make a case that the early portion of their teams’ journeys would include some bumps in the road.

As a school in its third year of existence, Pacifica Christian could continue to play the “new program” card, if it wanted to. Yet, the Tritons have never seemed interested in going down that path.

No matter how small their numbers, the Tritons find a way to be competitive.

Then there is Sage Hill, which graduated eight seniors from last year’s squad. The Lightning started four underclassmen in the season opener.

All-in-all, it made for a great evening of competition between two teams that did not make any excuses. The coaches got exactly what they want at this early juncture of the year — a hard-fought match with value in experience and teachable moments.

Senior outside hitter Logan Senn had a match-high 26 kills, and Sage Hill rallied for a 25-18, 23-25, 26-28, 25-14, 15-13 nonleague win over the Tritons.

Although they had played just one year together in the past, Senn said he feels comfortable working off of sophomore setter Amin Sajjadian. It showed with the duo hooking up for five kills in the final set.

“This is our second year playing together,” Senn said. “I think I’m just used to his sets, and that helps.”

Sajjadian wound up with 40 assists, seven kills and three blocks. He showed confidence in Senn, sending the ball in his direction even when the Lightning realigned with Senn on the right side.

“He always knows where he has to be, and then I know where he is,” Sajjadian said. “It’s pretty incredible that even though [the opponents] know where the ball is going, they couldn’t stop him.”

Sage Hill went on an 8-0 run to begin Game 4, riding the serve of sophomore Jackson Bryant. He had five kills and four service aces.

Sophomore Connor Martin had nine kills, and senior Calvin Brown added five kills for the Lightning.

Lightning coach Setiam Allah said that it will take time for the new cast of characters to get comfortable in most game situations. He added that it will help his team instrumentally to have played in a closely-contested match this early in the season.

“This game is going to be heavy on them because we went five, it was 13-all,” Allah said. “We had to put everything together to play well for the last couple of points to kind of edge over them a little bit.”

The game-ending kill was provided by freshman Andrew Dallape. Allah expects experiences like that to pay off in the long run.

“That’s huge for [the freshmen] that they were able to contribute to a varsity game and actually have an impact,” he said.

The Tritons were led by senior outside hitter Josh Griffith, who had 13 kills, six aces, and 2½ blocks. Sophomore middle blocker Josh Sims added four kills and two blocks. Senior Kelley Murphy had eight assists and four aces, and senior Kyle Barnard chipped in with 3½ blocks.

“We’re excited to practice some more transition plays,” Tritons coach Tommy Murphy said. “When the ball comes over, it’s in our court. [We’re] learning how to use the ball in our passing and our setting so that we can get it to guys like Sims or Griffith. [Then] we can utilize their power.”

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner