Boys’ Volleyball: Pender leads Sailors in opener
For the last six weeks, Cole Pender has looked different. He has stood out for something other than his volleyball exploits.
He was able to play for the first time for Newport Harbor High this year. The Sailors opened the season at home against Laguna Beach on Tuesday.
Afterward, a family friend walked up to Pender. She told Pender that she didn’t even recognize him.
“Are you kidding me? What is this? What in the world?” the woman asked Pender about his hair color.
Pender told her he lost a football bet in mid-January, and because of that, he had to dye his hair bright yellow.
The color has turned orange, and the hairdo still looks bright, almost as bright as Newport Harbor’s season. Pender and the Sailors showed they are going to be tough to beat this year.
Pender, a UCLA commit, produced 11 kills and five digs in Newport Harbor’s 25-15, 25-22, 25-21 sweep.
Pender and company finished the Breakers in a hurry, even without the services of sophomore standout Dayne Chalmers. Coach Rocky Ciarelli said Chalmers, who played basketball in the winter, is out with an arm injury.
“We got guys that can come in and step up. We got depth,” said Pender, an outside hitter. “I think every time we come to the gym we should be able to beat the team [we’re facing]. Everyone wants to come in and beat us now that we’re the top guys. When we were younger, [when] we were all freshmen and sophomores, we were like, ‘This is an upset.’ But now there’s no upset. We’re the favorites to win most of the games that we play.”
The Sailors return all of their starters from last season’s team that shared the Sunset League title, except for one, setter Carlos Rivera.
He showed up to support Newport Harbor. The CIF Southern Section denied Rivera another year of eligibility after last season.
With Rivera in the stands, Ciarelli has turned to a 6-2 offense, with setters Landon Monroe and Joe Karlous running things. The two went to Pender, a 6-foot-3 junior, Spencer Lawrence, a 6-5 senior, and Ethan Talley, a 6-7 junior.
Lawrence, a middle blocker bound for Ohio State, finished with six kills and five block assists, while Talley added five kills, two block assists and two digs.
Monroe also recorded five kills, to go with seven digs.
The player filling in for Chalmers at outside hitter was Jack Higgs. The sophomore had three kills, one solo block and two block assists.
“He did a good job,” Ciarelli said of Higgs. “We played well. Laguna is a good team. I was pretty happy. There was a good crowd here. That’s how high school sports should be.”
Next for Newport Harbor is a home date with San Clemente on Thursday at 5:45 p.m.
As for the Breakers, they play another Sunset League team on the road. Defending Orange Coast League champion Laguna Beach is at Edison on Friday at 5:45 p.m.
Sam Burgi led Laguna Beach with 13 kills, and Pete Obradovich had eight.
“We have kind of a mixture of kids,” Laguna Beach Coach Darren Utterback said. “We had a couple of freshmen [Andrew Reavis and Geste Bianchi]. We got a libero [USC-bound senior Cole Paxson] that set for us the first two games, and then we went to our sophomore setter [Ayrton Garcia], so we just have a lot of pieces that are trying to get used to each other.
“The team is all over the place age-wise. [For] Newport Harbor, most of [its] guys have played together for two to three years now on varsity. They were a very young team a few years ago, and this is all those kids now. I kind of expected them to be a little more polished than us early on.”
The only thing that needs refining is Pender’s hairdo. He said he plans to cut it and dye it back to his normal color of blondish brown on Wednesday.
Twitter: @ByDCP
