Laguna boys’ volleyball shake off rust

COSTA MESA “” At 6-foot-10 and with his black glasses, Costa Mesa senior middle blocker Ryan Thompson is tough to ignore.

The same is true about this year’s Mustangs, but Laguna Beach found a way to get the job done on the road Tuesday.

The Breakers swept, 25-18, 25-21, 25-18, in a battle for first place in the Orange Coast League Tuesday at Costa Mesa High.

It was the first match in 20 days for Laguna Beach (16-5, 5-0), but the Breakers showed little rust against the upstart Mustangs (10-3, 3-1). This was true, even though Breakers senior outside Cooper Gwaltney missed the match with a back injury.

Coach Lance Stewart slid over junior Reed Thompson from middle blocker to outside.

“We were pretty sharp,” Stewart said. “[Costa Mesa] played well in the second game, and they were a good challenge for us. We knew they had the big middle, and they pass the ball pretty well.

“We were expecting a battle and we got one.”

Stewart said his team had only had two practices recently, but the Breakers didn’t show it.

They led throughout Game 1, but Game 2 was tight the whole way, with neither team leading by more than a point until the very end. That was when Laguna Beach won the last four to snap a 21-21 tie, two of those points coming on kills by sophomore Robbie McKnight (seven kills).

Travis Woloson had 12 kills to lead the Breakers, and fellow junior Scott Chapel added nine. Senior Harrison Phelps led the team with 12 digs, and McKnight added six digs and 20 assists for the well-rounded effort.

“We’ve got some people who are dinged up,” Stewart said. “[Gwaltney] has some back issues right now that we’re trying to calm down, so the nice thing is, we just move [Thompson] to outside. He did a serviceable job, and we were able to not skip a beat.”

The Breakers led throughout Game 3, pulling away late.

Senior outside hitter Jeff Dye had eight kills to lead the Mustangs.

“When they would miss a serve, we’d miss a serve right back,” Costa Mesa Coach Garry Currier said. “I think we were a little anxious to play. We knew we had a great chance to beat them, and we just didn’t perform up to where we expected. Laguna, I don’t know if they wanted it more, but we were more anxious than they were to win the [match]. We just had mental lapses.”

The rematch, which will be the regular-season finale for both schools, is May 6 at Laguna Beach.

The Breakers, ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section Division II coaches’ poll, played at last-place Godinez Thursday and play host to Calvary Chapel at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday.