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.”
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.