Boys volleyball: NH stumbles against Irvine

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - Newport Harbor High’s boys volleyball team not only

battled undefeated Irvine Tuesday night at home, they battled themselves

as well.

Numerous costly errors combined with the tall timbers of the Vaqueros,

ranked No. 1 in CIF Southern Section Division I, were too much for the

Sailors to overcome, losing, 17-15, 10-15, 5-15, 8-15, in the Sea View

League opener for both schools.

“I’ve got to hand it to Irvine,” Sailors’ Coach Dan Glenn said afterward.

“They don’t beat themselves. If you make mistakes against them, you will

lose and that was the case tonight.”

The Vaqs’ two-headed monster of 6-foot-3 B.J. Fell (27 kills) and 6-6

Kris Kraushaar (25 kills) were enough to give Newport Harbor, ranked No.

6 in Division I, its first loss in four matches.

“It’s been a while since we’ve beaten them,” Vaqueros’ Coach Mark Mednick

said. “They’ve had our number for quite some time and it’s nice to get a

win against them.”

Senior Billy Clayton led the Sailors with 28 kills, while sophomore Brian

Gaeta chipped in with 19 kills and Blake Tippett had 14.

“I felt like we had some mental breakdowns out there, which led to a

bunch of mental errors,” Glenn said. “You can’t do that and expect to be

successful against a team like Irvine.”

Newport jumped out to a 13-7 lead in game one, only to see Irvine (7-0

overall) go on a 6-0 run to tie the score.

Newport hung tough. With the game tied at 15-15, Clayton smoked a kill

past the Vaqueros’ defense for a 16-15 Tars’ lead.

Gaeta had 11 kills in game one alone, including the game-winner for the

Sailors.

Despite the win, Glenn saw the errors starting to become a factor. “Even

though we won the first game, I knew we had to eliminate our mistakes,”

Glenn said. “Irvine stayed pretty level the whole match, while we play at

a much higher emotional level, which we need to do to be successful.”

Irvine rebounded quickly from the game-one loss and led game two from

start to finish. Newport got as close as, 10-9, before the Vaqueros

scored five of the last six points to win.

Game three was all Irvine, jumping out to a 7-0 lead and cruising from

there.

The Sailors tried to hang tough in game four. Strong, deep jump-serves by

senior Kent Turner helped Newport take a 5-4 lead.

But back came Irvine, ripping off six straight points thanks to a gaggle

of violations and missed shots.

Newport got as close as, 10-8, but that would be it as Irvine closed the

match out with five straight points.

Despite the loss, Glenn saw some positives. “We showed some good signs

out there,” he said. “We’ve had some good days and bad days so far. We’ll

just have to see if we can bounce back from this.”

The Sailors will travel to Santa Margarita to take on the Eagles Thursday

at 5:45 p.m. in nonleague action.