No. 3 Marina Comes Back to Beat No. 1 San Clemente

Although it’s only March, Marina, ranked third in the county, and top-ranked San Clemente played Wednesday’s nonleague boys’ volleyball match with the emotion of a postseason meeting.

After 3 hours 8 minutes, visiting Marina outlasted San Clemente to win, 15-8, 12-15, 13-15, 15-4, 15-9.

Marina’s defense proved to be the difference, with Jeff Wootton, who had 35 kills and 10 blocks, Steffin Rangel, who had nine kills, 11 blocks and 15 digs, and Rob Kijewski, who had 38 kills and six blocks, leading the way.

Kijewski notched his 12th kill in the fifth game to give the Vikings a side out and their sixth match point and the Tritons finally succumbed on a Kijewski ace.

“At the end, it was two heavyweights slugging it out,” San Clemente Coach Ken Goldstone said. “We knew they’d come in with a lot of intensity, especially after we got them last weekend.”

San Clemente (1-1) beat Marina (4-1) in the semifinals of the Orange County Championships Saturday, winning two of three games. Wednesday, the Tritons won two of the first three games before Marina rallied.

“Even when we fell behind 9-1 in the third game,” Wootton said. “We knew we could come back. We just had to play our game.”

That worked in the first game when Marina had eight blocks and helped force San Clemente into 13 hitting errors to pave the way for an easy 15-8 Marina win.

But Gray Garrett, a 6-foot-6 outside hitter who has signed with UCLA, had a match-high 42 kills and Brian George (23 kills, 14 blocks) and Nick Gardner (23 kills, eight blocks) also gave Dan Talcott (94 assists) plenty of options.

But Marina steadied itself in the final two games, and some erratic passing and serving, including six service errors in Game 5, ultimately took its toll on San Clemente.

“These were two great teams,” Marina Coach Darrick Lucero said. “It came down to who would get on a streak at the end. I’m just happy it was us.”