Southern Section Volleyball Playoffs : El Toro Gets Another Chance Against Edison in First Round

The El Toro High School boys’ volleyball team got off to a slow start this season.

So what else is new?

Considering that Coach Mike Jagd’s nonleague scheduling methods are reminiscent of boot camp, it’s a wonder El Toro makes it into South Coast League play in one piece.

“If I could schedule UCLA at the beginning of the season, I would,” Jagd said. “Kids tend to be a little arrogant, a little cocky before the season. Everything they do in practice works. They hit the ball perfectly.”

So Jagd believes in massive doses of harsh reality to wake the boys up. This season, El Toro began its season with a victory over Ocean View, but then lost to Laguna Beach--Orange County’s top-ranked team--in three games.

Then, El Toro lost to Edison, another highly ranked team, in a close five-game match.

El Toro (14-2) plays host to Edison (15-2) at 7:30 tonight in the first round of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs. Edison knocked El Toro out of the playoffs last season in the wild-card round.

Last season El Toro was 10-6. This year’s team has a 13-game winning streak since the loss to Edison.

The tough competition--El Toro also beat Palisades, No. 1 in the City Section, and 10th-ranked Fountain Valley--was especially valuable this season because competition in the South Coast League was less than intense. The league’s second and third qualifiers, Irvine and Capistrano Valley, finished the season with losing records.

Dan Williams, a 6-foot-4 middle blocker, is El Toro’s leading hitter and averages 5.6 kills per game.

In contrast to El Toro’s winning streak, Edison has limped to the end of the season. The Chargers lost to Huntington Beach and Marina in the second half of the Sunset League season.

But Edison responded in Wednesday’s wild-card round by dominating Culver City, 15-3, 15-5, 15-2. Darren Lance had 13 kills in the match. Aaron Boone, a 6-4 setter and brother of Edison’s 1988 All-Southern Section Brian Boone--had 41 assists.

University (12-3), which defeated Torrance in the wild-card round, travels to Santa Barbara (11-3) to play its first-round match. To guard against what he calls “rubber legs,” Ladd Salness, University coach, will have his team leave Irvine at 11:30 a.m.

Marina (12-4) plays at Santa Monica (14-2) Friday. Santa Monica was seeded No. 1 in last year’s 4-A playoffs before being upset by Marina in second round.

In other 4-A matches, Irvine (8-9) plays at No. 1 Mira Costa (18-0), Newport Harbor (10-5) plays at Huntington Beach (14-1) and Laguna Beach (17-1) is at home against Dos Pueblos (9-6).

In 3-A first-round matches, Esperanza (13-4) plays at Whittier Christian (15-0) and Mater Dei (15-3) plays at Downey (13-3).