Boys volleyball: Newport cruises past Laguna Hills

Tony Altobelli

NEWPORT BEACH - In less time than it takes to watch a soap opera on

television, the Newport Harbor High boys volleyball team put away

visiting Laguna Hills, 15-1, 15-10, 15-4, Tuesday in Sea View League

action.

“It was a nice way to get back into the swing of things following Spring

Break,” Coach Dan Glenn said of the 45-minute win. “We had some solid

practices during the break and I was happy with the way we played

tonight. We’re going into the right direction and with our schedule

that’s ahead of us, it should be a lot of fun.”

Junior Blake Tippett led the Sailors (8-3, 5-1 in league) with five

kills, while senior Kent Turner chipped in with four kills, three ace

serves and five digs.

“Kent had a nice all-around game for us,” Glenn said. “Usually, he’s our

setter, but we were able to let him do some other things for us and he

did them well.”

Newport took momentum right from the opening serve, winning game one

before the echo of Pearl Jam’s pregame song “Go” had left the gym

speakers.

Senior Dustin Illingworth had three kills and a block in the 13-minute

opening game. “Dustin is getting better and better with each match,”

Glenn said. “You can see it starting to click for him out there.”

After Newport scored the opening point of Game 2, Laguna Hills scored

five straight points for an early advantage.

But Newport stormed back with a 6-0 run of its own, led by Tippett’s two

kills and a block.

Strong play by the Hawks’ Chris Williams and Justin Ringor gave Laguna

Hills a 9-7 lead, before Newport Harbor slammed the door on Game 2 with

an 8-1 run, led by the strong serving of junior Christian Berg-Hansen and

senior Jimmy Sanders.

After an early lead by Laguna Hills in Game 3, Newport took control,

jumping out to leads of 8-2 and 12-3. Three Laguna Hills’ errors gave the

Sailors their final three points for the match.

“All we want to do is keep getting better,” Glenn said. “We still have a

bunch of things to work on before the playoffs get underway. We still

need to improve on our free balls and our down balls, among other

things.”

Glenn was able to rest senior Brad Craig, who has some back trouble and

Adam Tomalas, who was battling the flu.

“We really need to stay healthy heading into this time of the year,”

Glenn said. “I was glad to rest some guys tonight.”

Newport Harbor will head to Woodbridge on Thursday night before competing

in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions this weekend.

“I love our upcoming schedule,” Glenn said. “Woodbridge is never an easy

place to play and the Santa Barbara Tournament is always awesome. We’re

on the opposite bracket from Corona del Mar, so I’m really excited about

that.”

The Sailors-Sea Kings rematch takes place on Friday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m.

at Newport.