El Toro Overwhelms Slumping Tritons

There are times when a team can play poorly and still win.

San Clemente Coach Ken Goldstone stated the obvious when he said Friday night wasn’t one of those times. Not against El Toro.

The visiting Chargers gave San Clemente its chances early but the No. 6 Tritons, ranked No. 1 a week ago, had their worst performance of the young season in a 15-12, 15-5, 15-13 loss to No. 7 El Toro in a South Coast League boys’ volleyball match.

“We made more errors tonight than I can remember all year,” Goldstone said. “Errors on the serve, errors on the pass, errors everywhere.”

Goldstone said that after an impressive win over Capistrano Valley and a good week of practice he felt his team was ready for Friday. Both teams came out sluggish, but when El Toro finally rebounded toward the end of the first game, San Clemente couldn’t keep up.

“I can’t put my finger on it,” Goldstone said. “I felt if we could play like we’re capable we would have won the match. We sure didn’t help ourselves tonight. That’s what frustrates me most.”

The Chargers (5-1, 2-0) had five early service errors and numerous other mistakes and trailed, 7-5, in the first game. Then the Tritons (4-4, 1-1) began to fall apart. El Toro scored six consecutive points on four Triton errors to take control and won the game despite a late Triton surge.

The Tritons all but disappeared after three straight points cut the Chargers’ first-game lead to 13-12. San Clemente was blown out through the second game and well into the third before cutting a 14-6 deficit to 14-13.

“I was convinced we could beat them after the first game,” Goldstone said. “After the second game [we] were just not playing with any zest or confidence.”

Jimmy Pelzel and Kyle Martin both had 17 kills and Zack Karlen had 14 blocks for the Chargers.

“They played down, I’ve never seen them like that,” Pelzel said. “We’re both pretty identical teams. Someone had to fold if it was going to go only three games. I was expecting a bigger battle.”

Nick Gardner had 12 kills, Gray Garrett 11 for the Tritons.

In other South Coast League matches:

Capistrano Valley 3, Mission Viejo 0--Morgan O’Malley had nine kills and Brent Wagner had eight digs for host Capistrano Valley (3-3, 1-1), which won, 15-0, 15-5, 15-7.

Dana Hills 3, Trabuco Hills 1--After splitting the first two games, the Dolphins came back to win, 15-10, 12-15, 15-10, 15-12.

Paul Williams had 14 kills for Dana Hills (3-5, 1-1). Trabuco Hills drops to 1-7, 0-2.