Eagles escape with victory

Rick Devereux

Sometimes a loss can be a victory for a team if the players perform

above expectations against tough opponents. Costa Mesa High Coach

Dave Sorrells left the Mustang gym with a smile on his face even

though his team was sweep by Estancia, 21-25, 20-25, 21-25.

“We played with honor today,” Sorrells said. “We accomplished what

we needed to do.”

The close match is a reverse of the results when the teams faced

off two weeks ago and Costa Mesa averaged 13 points a game. Estancia

Coach Tracey Ingraham also had a smile on her face after the contest.

“It’s good for us to struggle,” she said. “I kind of like to see

how they handle it. They kept their cool, they still got the job

down. We didn’t play our best but we still beat them in three games,

so I think that says a lot about our team.”

The Eagles committed 31 service errors in the match compared to

eight for Costa Mesa (6-7, 3-3 in league), but senior Josh Kornegay’s

strong showing at the net led Estancia (12-1, 6-0). Last year’s

first-team All-CIF Division III selection had a match-high 12 kills,

three more than the last time he faced the Mustangs. Still, he was

not particularly happy with the performance.

“I didn’t do that well at all. I didn’t pass that well and I had a

lot of service errors. I was probably about 55% on my jump serves,

but we battled to win,” he said.

“We expected to be rusty because we haven’t played a game in two

weeks,” Ingraham said. “This game was our first game back and I

expected our serving and passing to be a little bit messy, and it

was, but it didn’t startle us.”

Costa Mesa capitalized on Estancia’s rustiness by never letting

the Eagles build a comfortable lead. Estancia’s biggest lead in the

first game was 21-15, but unforced errors by the Eagles and a block

by Costa Mesa’s Garrett Walthers gave the Mustangs a run down the

stretch before Estancia earned the 25-21 victory.

Trevor Holmes, the Eagles junior setter, took control of the

second game, handing out 10 assists, six of which went to outside

hitter Kris Hartwell. But Costa Mesa, again, kept the game close.

Mustang sophomore setter Andrew Melcer, who did not practice all week

because of pneumonia, served three-straight points to tie the second

game at 19. After a sideout, Holmes aced his serve to give Estancia a

21-19 lead. Another service error by the Eagles put Costa Mesa within

reach at 21-20, but Estancia closed out the game for the 25-20 win.

“We’re not done yet,” Sorrells said after game two, and his

Mustangs gave Estancia all it could handle in game three, taking a

14-13 lead. After Scott Markley served an ace for the Eagles and

Scott Sankey blocked two kill attempts by Costa Mesa, Estancia had

regained the lead. Hartwell eventually finished off the match with an

ace.

Estancia will hold a match against its alumni at 5 p.m. today.

Costa Mesa will play its alumni game at 7 p.m. Monday.