Narrow victory

Rick Devereux

A true championship-caliber team has the ability to earn a victory

even on a day when it is not playing at its best.

If that is indeed the case, then the Newport Harbor High boys

volleyball team should consider ordering a Sea View League trophy

after the Sailors defeated host Foothill, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22,

Tuesday despite not playing up to their abilities.

“We survived,” Coach Dan Glenn said. “We didn’t play terrible.

Foothill is a very tough team and this is a tough place to play.”

The Tars had spring break last week, but the team still had

practices.

“I’m not using [spring break] as an excuse [for how we played],”

Glenn said. “We weren’t real, real good. We’re still learning.”

Newport (8-9, 3-0 in league) maintains first place in league while

the Knights fall to 11-9 and 1-3.

The Sailors had a 17-11 lead in the first game, but Foothill made

a late charge to bring the score to 22-21. A service ace by senior

Brett Perrine coupled with two Knight mistakes ended the game.

The second game seesawed with neither team able to grab a lead of

more than two points. There were 17 ties and Foothill earned its

first lead at 15-14 on a Shane Harper kill and moved the margin to

16-14 on a Sailor hitting error.

“We had a few too many hitting errors,” Glenn said. “But Foothill

is a good team and took advantage of our mistakes.”

Newport had 14 hitting errors in the match.

Even Perrine, who has committed to play for UCLA next year, had

difficulty with his timing on his approach. He still finished with a

match-high 24 kills.

“We were lucky to pull out a win,” Perrine said. “We came out flat

emotionally. We didn’t play with fire.”

After surrendering a 15-11 lead into a 17-15 hole, Newport was

saved in the third game thanks to seven unforced errors by the

Knights down the stretch for the win.

It looked as if Foothill was going to force a fifth game when the

Knights took a 22-19 lead in the fourth game, but Newport called a

timeout and Glenn gave a motivational talk to his star player.

“Coach ripped on me in the timeout to play better,” Perrine said.

“I told [setter] Ted [Slater] to set me every time right after that.”

Perrine had three straight kills and a Foothill hitting error

ended the match.