Sailors Shine as Star Sits

Apparently, playing without its best player isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball team.

Blake Tippett, the Sailors’ USC-bound outside hitter, sat out Monday’s Orange County Championships Division I final against Foothill because of a sprained ankle. But the Sailors still rallied to defeat the top-ranked team in the county, 10-15, 15-6, 15-10, at Edison High.

“It’s tough when you see your best player go down,” said Newport Harbor setter Loyd Wright, who had 23 assists and earned tournament MVP honors. “But we talked about playing with our hearts, about how we all needed to step it up and win this for Blake.”

Tippett hurt his ankle Saturday while playing basketball at his house, Sailor Coach Dan Glenn said. On Monday, with Tippett watching from the bench, Newport Harbor started sluggishly, but put the pressure on the Knights with some tough serving to win Game 2 and force a rally-scoring Game 3.

“It’s kind of a crapshoot with rally scoring because anyone who gets a hot streak will win,” Glenn said. “You hit a few balls out and you’re dead. We won our last three matches in this tournament on a rally-scoring game and we could’ve lost any of them.

“Those eight teams that got to the quarterfinals, I think you could have rolled out any one of them and they could have just as easily won this tournament. There’s a lot of parity in the county.”

Newport Harbor’s performance Monday was a shining example.

Morgan Craig and Erik Peterson each had eight kills and middle blockers Christian Berg-Hansen and freshman Jamie Diefenbach combined for five blocks to spark a Sailor defense that forced Foothill into 19 hitting errors.

Foothill had seven kills and six hitting errors for a .047 hitting percentage in the final game.

Outside hitters Matt Daniels and Kevin Logan each had 12 kills for Foothill, but with some shaky passing, setter Ryan Burgess (27 assists) couldn’t mix up the offense. Foothill middle blocker Chris Coleman had four kills in the first game, but only one the rest of the way.

“We didn’t do the things that we normally do well,” Foothill Coach Scott Bruce said. “Our passing just disappeared. We didn’t serve tough. We just crumbled.”

Burgess and middle blocker Craig Astor earned all-tournament honors for Foothill, along with Tippett, Marina’s Steffin Rangel and Irvine’s Kris Kraushaar.

In the Division II final:

Ocean View wins--Sophomore Jack Hauck had 13 kills to help the Seahawks defeat Dana Hills, 15-9, 16-14. Hauck had nine kills in the second game for Ocean View, which trailed, 8-2 and 9-3, before rallying to win.

Dana Hills’ David Pettijohn had seven of his nine kills in the second game, helping the Dolphins move ahead, 14-12. But Hauck spiked from the right side for a side out, then used his jump serve to help the Seahawks score the final four points. Hauck had two kills and an ace for three of Ocean View’s final four points.

Assistants Caroline Brandon and Tim Walsh coached Ocean View in the absence of Coach Jimmy Harris, who was out of town, Walsh said.