Royal Gets Second Wind and Beats Buena : Volleyball: Rizzo helps Highlanders get past first round of playoffs with a five-game victory.

Drawing in their first breath of air in the Southern Section Division I playoffs, members of the Royal High boys’ volleyball team gasped, wheezed and nearly passed out.

Then, out of the sky dropped a pair of oxygen masks, one marked Danny Rizzo, the other Defense.

Soon thereafter, the Highlanders recovered and defeated Buena, 15-9, 13-15, 15-13, 14-16, 15-3 in first-round action Friday at Royal.

Rizzo had 33 kills, nine in the deciding fifth game, and aptly stated what his team went through.

“That was a war,” said an exhausted Rizzo.

Indeed it was, and Buena (9-6) won its share of battles with a perfect defensive game, digging, blocking and scrapping wherever it could.

Royal (15-2), which hadn’t lost a game in a match since a March 17 sweep by Mira Costa, turned defensive not a moment too soon.

The Highlanders, ranked fifth in Division I, took the defensive initiation much like the Bulldogs had been doing the entire match.

Royal see, Royal do.

“We outdug them in the final game,” said Royal Coach Bob Ferguson. “We said, ‘This is silly, let’s get this thing done.’ We played like we were able to.”

The Marmonte League champion Highlanders led, 4-3, in game five before Rizzo went on a tear. He put together a string of four kills as Royal took an 8-3 lead and Buena never scored again.

Additionally, Buena could no longer find the floor with their kill attempts, something it did plenty of times in game two and four.

Middle blockers Cameron Ohl and Matt Prosser systematically took apart the Royal defense.

Ohl had five of his 22 kills in the second game as the Bulldogs quieted a boisterous home crowd.

Prosser, who had 21 kills, made his mark in the fourth game, nailing six kills.

“We played a hell of a game,” Ohl said. “They had a tough time stopping us in the middle.”

Royal countered with some offense of its own. Middle blocker Eric Carlsen had 20 kills and six blocks in the match.

More important, in the fifth game, the Highlanders won the battle in the middle. Carlsen had four kills and effectively teamed with Rizzo on offense.

“We seemed to not make the big plays in the fifth game that we were making earlier,” Buena Coach Steve Berk said.

But the Bulldogs, who finished third in the Channel League and posted their best-ever regular-season record, made a point.

“We proved that we could play with anybody,” Berk said.

Royal, which won the Division II title last season, has moved up a division. The Highlanders will play South Torrance, a five-game winner over Newport Harbor, on Tuesday at site to be determined.

“I know we’re better than this,” Ferguson said.

“This was tough. It’s a hard way to do it.”

Joe Olsen had 19 kills and Scott Hambly added 13 for Royal. John Garner had 17 kills for Buena.