Breakers turning out road warriors

Mike Sciacca

In its final outing before spring break, the Laguna Beach High boys’

volleyball team went on the road to face Northwood and earned a

hard-fought, 32-34, 25-20, 25-15, 25-15 Pacific Coast League victory.

The win puts the Breakers at 4-0 in league play, and 13-7 overall.

Laguna got off to a slow start in the match and trailed, 8-3, but

rallied to tie the score at 25-25.

The Breakers, however, couldn’t convert on a number of game

points, and Northwood eventually took a 34-32 win.

Laguna against started slowly in the second game, but took off

midway through the game to take full control.

Ivan Kovacevic had a big match for the Breakers with 20 kills and

nine blocks.

Other key performances for the Breakers came from Luke Morris with

23 kills, 13 digs and five blocks, Andrew Chapel with 13 kills and 11

digs, Chris Hoffman with 12 kills and 10 digs, Robert Knapp with 10

digs and Clark Olson with 14 digs and 54 set assists.

Laguna returns to league play Tuesday at Northwood.

Match time is 5 p.m.

In track and field, Laguna fell to Northwood in a Pacific Coast

League meet.

Despite the loss, seven Breakers earned first-place finishes, five

of them winning multiple events.

Justin Rovin won the 110-hurdles in 16.15 and the 300-hurdles in

41.43; Jeremy Eaton won the 400-meters in 53.18 and the 800-meters in

2:04.44; Brittany Clark won the 100- and 200-meters (times not

available) Alex Crawley won the 1,600- and 3,200-meters (times not

available) and Addison Doud won the shot put and discus (distances

not available).

Other first-place finishers for Laguna included Aman Bhatia in the

mile (4:35) and Ryan Hedden in the 3,200-meters (10:21).

Laguna is 0-3 in league meets, having faced a brutal start to the

league race by running against powerhouses Tesoro, Corona del Mar and

Northwood.

“Although it may appear that starting the season at 0-3 signals

another typical Laguna track year, this record does not tell an

accurate story,” Laguna boys’ coach Dave Brobeck said. “First, it’s

always brutal to opening the season with the three powerhouses,

Tesoro, CdM and Northwood. We have been in contention against all

three of these huge schools up through the final events. It is

frustrating, though, when you beat each of these schools decidedly in

all running events and then get swept in the field events.

“Our sprint, distance and hurdle teams have been dominant, and

have kept us close in score, despite some poor performances in the

throws and jumps. One thing is clear though: there is a building

enthusiasm in the program and I feel that success will be soon to

follow. I have a young, coach-able group of budding league champions

to work with.”

Laguna runs today and Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, then

resumes league meet action Thursday at University at 3 p.m.

In softball, Laguna suffered another Pacific Coast League setback

to Northwood, falling this time, 12-0.

As was the case in last week’s 24-0 loss to the Timberwolves,

Laguna was no-hit.

Following a hiatus from play this week due to spring break, Laguna

returns to league action Tuesday by hosting Tesoro at 3:15 p.m.