Irvine Settles Down, Wins

After fighting some first-game jitters and a fired-up Newport Harbor team, Irvine, the top-ranked team in Orange County, bounced back to defeat the host Sailors, 15-17, 15-10, 15-5, 15-8 in a Sea View League boys’ volleyball match Tuesday.

B.J. Fell had 24 kills, four blocks and 15 digs to spearhead the attack for the Vaqueros (7-0, 1-0 in league), who gradually took control of the match after the fourth-ranked Sailors (3-1, 0-1), the defending league and Southern Section Division I champion, won a tight first game.

“We were too jumpy in the first game,” said Fell, who has signed with UC Irvine. “I knew we were going to be OK if we just played our game.”

Newport Harbor was on top of its game early. Billy Clayton, a 6-foot-5 outside hitter who has signed with Stanford, had 10 of his 27 kills in the first game and setter Kent Turner had 27 of his 68 assists in Game 1.

Outside hitters Brian Gaeta, a sophomore, had 11 of his 18 kills in the first game and junior Blake Tippett had seven of his 12 kills in Game 1 to help Newport Harbor to a 13-7 lead, before Irvine made the Sailors sweat out the final points.

“They ate us alive with their outside attack in that first game,” Irvine Coach Mark Mednick said. “Their outside hitters had a field day. But we finally started to play a some defense and we came back a little. It’s great to get a win here.”

Irvine won with its balance and defense . . . again. Setter Justin Marayag (69 assists) spread it around, with 6-6 junior Kris Kraushaar (21 kills, four blocks), 6-4 senior Jessie Waldowski (14 kills, six blocks) and 6-7 senior Zach Jardine (10 kills) helping Irvine close out Game 2 with the Vaqueros winning five of the final six points.

Newport Harbor had 13 hitting errors in Game 3, then 14 combined setting, hitting, blocking and service errors by the Sailors in Game 4 helped the Vaqueros to a 10-5 lead before Irvine closed it out.

“We’re getting better,” said Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn, whose team Manhattan Beach Mira Costa last week. “But tonight, we made too many unforced errors and you can’t do that and expect to beat a team like Irvine.”

In another Sea View match:

No. 8 Woodbridge 3, Laguna Hills 0--Jordan Winder had 10 kills and Jason Liljestrom had 27 assists with seven blocks to lead host Woodbridge to 15-2, 15-4, 15-8 victory. The Warriors improved to 6-1, 1-0. Laguna Hills dropped to 3-4, 0-1.

In nonleague volleyball:

Whittier Christian 3, Cerritos Valley Christian 0--Tim Layton had a game-high 26 kills to help Whittier Christian to a 15-12, 15-12, 15-8 victory.

Whittier Christian remained undefeated at 6-0.