Santa Margarita Continues to Roll

The Santa Margarita boys’ volleyball team rolled to a 15-8, 15-4, 15-17, 15-9 victory over El Toro in a Sea View League match Tuesday at El Toro.

The victory gave the Eagles, ranked No. 4 in Orange County, a 3-0 start in league.

Santa Margarita, which returned six starters from last season, is favored to win its first league title, but Coach Eddie Rapp is expecting more tough matches before season’s end.

“You can’t underestimate any team in this league,” he said.

The Eagles, 10-1 overall, took the first two games easily before the Chargers came out strong in the third.

“They just dug a lot of balls and kept the ball in play and put the pressure on us a little more,” Rapp said.

Tied, 15-15, Santa Margarita squandered two scoring opportunities with errors at the net before a hitting error resulted in a Charger point. Ryan Young and Steve Greene combined on a block to give El Toro the game.

“Sometimes, we tried to do too much at the net and that’s where they got their points,” Rapp said.

Santa Margarita jumped to a 12-3 lead in the fourth game before El Toro scored four points to come to within five, but that was as close as the Chargers got.

Justin Deblasio, Tim Gerlach and Trey Nelson each had 14 kills for the Eagles and Greene had a match-high 16.

El Toro (1-7, 0-3) has struggled since placing third at the Orange County Championships last month.

“They have shown some promise. It’s just a matter of taking some games. They just really need to learn to win, to come out and win the first game,” Charger Coach Doug O’Brien said.