Mustangs deliver statement

Rick Devereux

In what Coach Dave Sorrels called the most important match of the

season so far, the Costa Mesa High boys volleyball team started

slowly but eventually clicked on all cylinders to defeat visiting

Santa Ana, 25-17, 25-7, 25-19, in a Golden West League showdown.

“This was an incredibly important match for us,” Sorrells said.

“We have not been playing well and we needed to make a statement. Not

a statement to anyone else, but a statement to ourselves that we can

play at this level.”

Costa Mesa (8-2, 5-1 in league) maintains second place in the

Golden West League.

The Saints, who fall to 5-4, 3-2, had an opportunity to move into

a second-place tie with te Mustangs. But Mesa’s middle blockers

blocked any thought of the Saints moving up in the standings.

Senior Garret Walthers and junior Mitch Caldwell kept the momentum

with the Mustangs. Walthers finished with a match-high 11 kills. He

also registered two stuff blocks. Caldwell had a match-high three

stuff blocks along with five kills.

“Coach keeps telling me to set the middles more, no matter how

much I set them,” junior Andrew Melcer said. “The Santa Ana middle

blockers were not getting up [to block] quick, so I kept setting our

middles.”

Melcer finished with a match-high 26 assists. He also had three

service aces, two kills and a block.

The Mustangs had a slow start in the first game, falling into a

13-10 hole thanks to eight unforced errors. But consecutive kills by

Walthers and back-to-back service aces by William Lefebvre swung the

momentum decidedly in Mesa’s favor as the Mustangs went on a 11-0

run.

Costa Mesa maintained its dominating ways in the second game,

opening up a 10-0 cushion thanks to three service aces by Melcer.

The Mustangs built leads of 12-1 and 19-3 before finally closing

out the game with a Caldwell kill and a shanked pass by a Santa Ana

defender.

The Saints scored six of their seven points in Game 2 on Costa

Mesa errors.

The Mustangs jumped out to an 1103 lead in the third game and

eventually had the victory in sight at 22-14. But Santa Ana went on a

5-0 run to force Sorrells to call two timeouts.

“I wasn’t scared,” Walthers said. “We were trying to keep focus on

what we had to do. We were trying to stay focused and forget about

the last play.”

Consecutive kills by Ryan Bagwell, who finished with nine kills,

and an illegal touch by Santa Ana gave the Mustangs the three-game

sweep.

“We did not show up today,” Santa Ana Coach Brian Lillo said. “The

timing was off for our middles. I tried to tell our outside [hitters]

to close the blocks, but our timing was way off. [Costa Mesa] did a

great job off attacking in the middle.”

Costa Mesa complimented its quick sets in the middle with frequent

shoot sets to middle blockers who started toward the center of the

court, but diverted their path toward the sideline.

All five of Caldwell’s kills were quick middle attacks while

Walthers had six quick middle kills and two more on shoot sets.

“[Santa Ana wasn’t] blocking our middles,” Walthers said. “We were

practicing our shoots warming up and if they couoldn’t block our

[middle attacks] there was no way they were going to block the

shoots.”

Sorrells was happy with how the Mustangs played, especially coming

off Spring break.

“This was a tough match,” Sorrells said. “We haven’t played well.

We only had two practices last week. Most coaches don’t schedule

matches on Monday because it’s hard to get the kids focused. There

were a lot of problems we had to overcome.”

Even with all the distractions, however, Costa Mesa might have

played its best match of the season.

“We played at a high level and maintained it throughout the second

game and most of the third,” Sorrells said. “This was the best job

we’ve done at playing at a high level.”

The Mustangs play host to Westminster Friday at 4:30 p.m. Costa

Mesa swept the Lions, 25-20, 25-20, 26-24, when the two met last

month to open league.

“Everyone who we played in the first round of league, with the

possible exception of Santa Ana, we could have played better,”

Sorrells said. “I look forward to the second round of league. We need

to make a statement in league. We have got to go the rest of league

undefeated.”