Confused Tars daze Breakers

NEWPORT BEACH — Much to Dan Glenn’s relief, Newport Harbor High somehow withstood a wardrobe malfunction Wednesday night to win against one of the Sailors’ top Orange County opponents.

Er, make that wardrobe absence.

A missing jersey forced the Sailors’ coach to make unexpected lineup changes. The Sailors (12-3) had to play without a libero through four games of a five-game contest against Laguna Beach, the No. 3-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division II coaches’ poll. The Sailors, ranked No. 4 in Division I, won, 22-25, 19-25, 26-24, 25-16, 15-11.

Initially, J.B. Green, who normally plays outside hitter, was supposed to take over Andrew Kaban’s libero spot. Kaban missed Tuesday’s practice because he wasn’t feeling well.

“I thought if I had [Kaban] in for the whole game, it would wear him out,” Glenn said.

The Sailors started in navy jerseys for Game One. However, Glenn decided he wanted to move Green to the front row and put Kaban back at libero. Glenn wanted to switch to white jerseys and put Kaban in a navy one, but that plan was stymied when Glenn learned that one of the players forgot to bring his white jersey.

The Sailors ended up playing in two-tone jerseys, which are white on one side and blue on the other. Since Green had already worn the libero jersey, Kaban couldn’t be the same number, which left the Sailors with no libero.

Confused yet?

The absence of a libero left back row players with three rotations instead of six, so Jamie Galey and Cody Caldwell and Kaban and Max Volz were forced to switch off at the two middle positions.

“It’s not our strongest defensive and passing lineup,” Glenn said after the match, looking a bit shell-shocked. “We survived all that and pulled it out.”

It was a new, and unwanted experience for everyone, but the Sailors were helped by seniors who could make adjustments on the fly, Glenn said.

“It’s definitely on our mind because our middle’s passing,” said Kyle Caldwell, a senior bound for UCLA. “We’ve never worked on that. We don’t know what we’re supposed to hit out of that. We don’t know how passing works, setting. Everything’s messed up. Everything gets affected by that little change. We don’t have a back-row hitter anymore. Tucker [Peleuses] is passing. Everything’s getting switched.”

That added another layer to the task of defending Laguna Beach hitter Shawn Merz. Merz was in the five-spot in the lineup, but Laguna Beach Coach Lance Stewart moved him to fourth after Newport Harbor pushed the match to a fifth game.

“We couldn’t stop him,” Glenn said. “I switched a matchup against him and we still couldn’t stop him. We couldn’t block him and we couldn’t dig him. That’s the thing, where you go against a hot hitter and like that — fortunately we got hot and we served really tough the last two games.”

Glenn wanted Merz facing Kyle Caldwell, but that didn’t happen and the Sailors had to ride through Game Five trying to find another way to stop him.

“I took a gamble and flipped the lineup a little bit and he flipped his,” Glenn said. “We weren’t in the matchup I wanted to be in, so I was pretty nervous about that. It comes to a guessing game, and I guessed kinda wrong, but we hung in there and won, despite my bad gambling.”

Stewart wasn’t happy to see his two-game lead evaporate, but he was steaming in the fifth game when he thought officials missed a call. Stewart said Newport Harbor had four touches during a particularly heated rally. The Sailors won the point to make it 7-6, then went on a 6-1 run before ending the last game, 15-11. Glenn said the touch Stewart contested was actually a block.

Regardless, after Wednesday’s debacle, Kyle Caldwell said he didn’t think anyone would be forgetting anything.

“If we don’t bring our jerseys,” he said, “We’re in big trouble.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.