Boys volleyball: Sailors claim OC crown

Barry Faulkner

HUNTINGTON BEACH - With its senior leader and top player sidelined

by a sprained ankle, sustained playing basketball Sunday, the Newport

Harbor High boys volleyball team might have approached the title match of

the Orange County Championships wondering what might have been.

But after defeating Foothill, 10-15, 15-6, 15-10, Monday at Edison

High to win the tournament for the first time in nine years, Sailor

supporters were instead left to ponder just how good this team might be.

With senior all-tournament outside hitter Blake Tippett (ankle) laying

his crutches alongside those used by junior outside hitter Brian Gaeta

(out for the season with patellar tendon surgery), behind the Harbor

bench, the Tars, as they say, stepped up.

“We all got together this morning and talked about giving a little bit

extra,” said Newport junior setter Lloyd Wright, who took home tournament

MVP honors with 26 assists.

“We understood, with Tippett going down, we needed to pick it up

tonight,” Newport junior Erik Peterson said. “I think this will help our

confidence to know we can still play well with a top player down.”

So, was it tough for Tippett, an All-Newport-Mesa District performer

last spring, to watch, knowing he could do nothing but cheer?

“It wasn’t,” said the 6-foot-3 standout, whom Coach Dan Glenn gave

credit for helping the Tars win playoff matches Saturday over Mater Dei

and Marina to make their third OC Championships final in four seasons.

“Everybody stepped up, which made it fun for me to watch. If we can play

like that, we could go a long way this year.”

The Sailors were required to go the three-game distance against the

Knights, after dropping the first game, despite a valiant rally.

Foothill earned an 8-1 lead, before the Sailors came all the way back

to pull even at 9-9. Foothill, set to join Newport in the Sea View

League, beginning the fall of 2002, went ahead, 11-9, before Christian

Berg-Hansen’s float-serve ace helped Harbor close to within one.

The Knights, however, scored the game’s final four points to push the

Tars to the brink of elimination.

But, with Wright playing the architect to a balanced hitting attack

including junior Morgan Craig (nine kills), Petersen (seven), senior

middle blocker Aaron Yarnal (six), Berg-Hansen (six), junior Greg Perrine

(three) and 6-7 freshman Jamie Diefenbach (three), the Sailors broke open

a 6-6 tie in the second game to close out the equalizer.

Ace serves by sophomore Nick Kelly and Perrine, as well as two kills

apiece from Craig and Berg-Hansen, helped the Sailors score nine straight

points and force the deciding game.

With rally scoring in effect, Glenn’s plan to serve tough enough to

“take the game off the net,” proved effective.

“We knew they had a very good setter and their outside hitters were so

good, we had to serve tougher keep the ball off the net,” Glenn said.

Perrine’s service winner gave Harbor a 6-4 lead and a Craig roll shot

and Foothill hitting error upped the margin to 8-4.

The Knights closed to 8-6, but a service error damaged their momentum

and the Tars took advantage.

Berg-Hansen pounded a back set from Lloyd to make it 10-7 and, later, kills by Yarnal and Peterson combined with three Foothill hitting errors

to give the Tars the unexpected crown.

“There’s so much parity in Orange County, I really think any one of

the eight teams who advanced from pool play could be here talking to

(reporters),” Glenn said after the awards presentation. “Fountain Valley

won a good tournament last week in San Diego, where we finished sixth. We

could have gone in the tank when we had some early passing problems, but

the kids did a nice job.

“Once you get to rally scoring, it’s anyone’s game. It’s a crapshoot,

which is one of the reasons I’m not a big fan of rally scoring. But we

won our last three matches with rally-scoring games, so it was good to us

this week.”

Monday’s win merely started a big week for the Sailors, who host

Santa Margarita Wednesday, then visit Mira Costa Friday.

Tippett said he expected to be back Friday and Glenn said he wouldn’t

hold him out to protect him for the March 27 Sea View League opener at

Irvine.

“I’m looking at that (Mira Costa) match as a playoff match,” Glenn

said.

Senior setter Ryan Burgess (26 assists) and senior middle blocker

Craig Astor (three kills) represented Foothill on the all-tournament

team.

Junior Kevin Logan paced the Knights Monday with 13 kills, while

senior Matt Daniels added nine.