Mustangs move step ahead

COSTA MESA — With both the Estancia High and Costa Mesa boys’ volleyball teams losing nearly all of their 2006 rosters to graduation, Friday’s clash of the cross-town rivals was the start of a race to see who could rebuild to their previous form first.

Since the seniors at the two schools left behind a high benchmark for success and with the schools now in CIF Southern Division II instead of Division III, this was the beginning of more a marathon than a sprint. The Mustangs reached the CIF Division III finals last season, while the Eagles entered last season as the No. 2-ranked team in the division.

Costa Mesa took the early lead in making its way back to the top, the first of the two to pick up an Orange Coast League victory this season, winning at Estancia, 25-19, 23-25, 25-10, 25-21.

Ryan Thompson, the Mustangs’ 6-foot-9 sophomore right side hitter, led the team with 10 kills. Senior middle blocker Scott Neslage had 10 kills and a team-high five blocks, while sophomore setter Ben Lefebvre added five aces.

Lefebvre is one of two Mustangs who return from last season’s team, senior outside hitter Robin Schuppert, who had five kills, being the other. Lefebvre was the only one to see extended playing time, filling in at outside hitter for his brother, Will, during a short stretch.

“Last year’s team was a team that had been together,” Lefebvre said. “Their experience and their commitment, it’s a good thing to learn from. We’ve had trouble with that and keeping together. But this is a big win for us.”

While Lefebvre kept the offense flowing smoothly, Neslage added an occasional spark on the defensive end.

“It’s the best,” Neslage said of blocking a kill attempt. “Mitch [Caldwell, the Mustangs’ starting middle blocker in 2006], my coach, we’ve been working together on me pushing over more. Today showed when we pull together we can play with anyone.”

Neslage’s biggest play came in the third game, with the score tied at a game apiece. The Mustangs (3-5, 1-2 in league) jumped out to a 5-1 lead when Neslage blasted four consecutive kills to help continue a run that would extend to 10-0 and leave Costa Mesa with a 10-1 lead. Two straight blocks from Neslage later gave the Mustangs their biggest lead of the match at 24-8.

“He’s an electric guy on and off the court,” first-year Mustangs Coach Gray Bailey said of Neslage. “He’s in your face ready to go. I wish we had him three years ago. He’s one of the most driven players.”

Bailey understands and appreciates that the bar has now been set high at Costa Mesa.

“There is a lot to live up to,” said Bailey who was an assistant at Costa Mesa in 2006. “[This year’s team] wants to show the team from last year that they are just as good.”

This season was bound to be tougher for Estancia Coach Mark Cygan, but the future has a chance to be brighter. No players returned from last season’s roster and there is only one senior on the 2007 roster, none in the starting lineup and their best player, outside hitter Kyle Prevel, is a freshman.

“Tonight was a good measuring stick,” Cygan said. “This was not our best game of the year. We both lost a lot of players. We’re both started off in the same boat. The guys hustle and effort was there, there was just a lot of mental mistakes.”

Sophomore middle blocker Bradley Reitler led the Eagles with six kills, hitting 35%.

Junior Ly Nguyen and Prevel had 12 and 10 digs respectively. Junior Barry Fryslie added nine assists for Estancia (3-11, 0-3 in league).

“Barry did a good job of putting the hitters in good position,” Cygan said. “Adriel [Robles] did a nice job at libero. He had a pretty good game. Brad had some nice swings.”

The Eagles came back from down 20-17, going on a 7-1 run, to take the second game.

“I thought that was going to be the turnaround for us,” Cygan said. “I thought we got all of our bad play out of the way. I thought we’d get things going. We just came out flat. It was tough emotionally for us. We were gonna roll, then come out floundering.”