Sailors are unbroken

NEWPORT BEACH — Veteran Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball coach Dan Glenn likes to say this is the time of the season when teams are still developing their identity.

One identifiable characteristic displayed by the Sailors Thursday was one that will surely please Glenn.

The host Sailors showed plenty of fight to rally for a 25-21, 18-25, 23-25, 26-24, 15-7 nonleague season-opening win over Laguna Beach.

Newport Harbor played without junior standout Cody Caldwell, the Newport-Mesa Player of the Year as a sophomore who sat for disciplinary reasons unrelated to his recent temporary dismissal from the boys’ basketball team, Glenn said.

The last time Caldwell was taken out of the picture (a severe foot injury in a first-round CIF playoff loss to St. John Bosco last season), the results were not this good.

But with veteran leadership provided by seniors Will Connelly and Jackson Carmack, the Sailors showed enough spunk to overcome the Breakers (0-2) as well as themselves.

“I think the turnaround came when we started making them beat us,” said Glenn, whose squad rallied from a 20-16 deficit in Game 1, let leads slip away in the second and third game, then survived four match points to erase a 24-20 deficit and force a fifth game that the hosts controlled. “We didn’t do anything magical, we just eliminated some unforced errors and [the Breakers] made some mistakes.

“This is a great, great win for us, to beat a team like that and to come back like that. We’ll take the W.”

Glenn said his players may also take some confidence from the perseverance they displayed.

Carmack, who had 50 assists, seven digs, five kills and 2.5 blocks, agreed.

“We put ourselves in a hole twice and both times we got out of it,” Carmack said. “Most of the time, it was just by keeping the ball in play, fighting harder and digging up balls.”

When it came to putting balls down, Connelly, a senior middle blocker, and senior outside hitter Rusty Sary led the way.

Sary had a match-high 18 kills, a handful of which came out of the back row. Connelly added 17 kills, converting quick sets and back slides. Connelly was also in on six blocks and had the hosts’ only ace serve.

Junior Zach Martin, shifted from his typical opposite spot to fill in outside for Caldwell, added 11 kills, while junior libero Connor Curry (18 digs) and senior Ian Sequeira (nine) helped solidify the defense.

“Last year in the playoffs, Cody went down and we didn’t come through,” Glenn said. “This year, we played a whole match [without Caldwell] and won, so that was just good to see.”

Laguna Beach, playing without Coach Lance Stewart, who was suspended indefinitely before the season by the school, which declined to identify the reason, was paced by a trio of seniors who play for the Newport Beach-based Balboa Bay Volleyball Club.

Travis Woloson had 14 kills, Scottie Chapel had 13 and Reed Thompson added 11 for the Breakers.

Newport Harbor visits Huntington Beach on March 16.