Royal Takes a Wild Ride, Falls

Royal High rode quite the roller coaster at Mira Costa.

The Highlanders soared to great heights and plunged to great depths. The hitters and blockers were at their best in one stretch and their worst in another. Their setters were being shuffled in and out in an attempt to find continuity.

Royal ran the gamut in just about every area of its boys’ nonleague volleyball match Friday night against the Mustangs.

When it was over, Mira Costa was steadier when it needed to be and defeated Royal, 15-9, 10-15, 15-9, 9-15, 15-8.

“This doesn’t hurt either team to play a match like this,” Royal Coach Bob Ferguson said.

The Highlanders hurt themselves during a slow offensive stretch in the fifth game.

With the score tied, 3-3, Royal failed to score on its next nine serves, allowing Mira Costa, ranked No. 2 in Southern Section Division I, to take a 9-3 lead.

The Highlanders never came any closer than 12-8.

“Two titans met, but we lucked out,” said Mira Costa Coach Mike Cook, whose Mustangs moved to 11-1. “We’ll see them in the finals.”

The third game was an offensive bust for Royal, which had 12 kills and 15 hitting errors.

Despite themselves, the Highlanders remained within striking distance and trailed, 10-9, before Mira Costa scored the final five points of the game, four of them coming on hitting errors by Royal’s Steve Russell, who had 22 kills.

Royal (9-1), ranked No. 4 in Division I, rebounded in the fourth game. Cam Dickson supplied most of the offense with five of his 16 kills in the match.

Petr Dusek, a foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic, started only his second match at setter for the Highlanders, but was replaced by James Whiting for the start of the second game.

Dusek came back midway through the second game and stayed for the start of the third, but was replaced shortly thereafter by Whiting. Dusek came back midway through the third game and played the rest of the match.

Last year, Royal swept Mira Costa in an early-season match that proved pivotal in the Highlanders’ eventual advance to the Division I championship.

Friday’s match left the Highlanders with a different challenge--can they come back for the playoffs, which start next month?

“I thought we played well, especially after being down,” Ferguson said.

Royal outside hitter David Clark had 12 kills despite playing with 21 stitches in his chin, the result of an ill-fated dive during practice on Tuesday.

Andy Krikorian had 23 kills for Mira Costa.

Dustin Avol had 18 kills for the Mustangs, and Jonathan Palacios, who plans to walk on at Stanford, added 11 kills.