Volleyball: Edison sweeps Mira Costa on opening day

The opening day of the 2010 prep volleyball season for the Edison Chargers on Thursday was a big one — a trip to the South Bay area to take on mighty Mira Costa.

As openers go, it didn’t get much bigger than this: The nonleague match-up, also the season-opener for the Mustangs, pitted two teams ranked third (Mira Costa) and fourth in the CIF Division 1-AA preseason poll.

In the end, the match belonged to Edison, which returned home to Huntington Beach with a 25-23, 25-20, 25-23 sweep.

“This is good for our confidence,” Edison Coach Trent Jackson said. “It’s a long season but this is a great start. We hope to be right there at the end of the season, too.”

Jackson said Edison was led by the standout play of senior middle blockers Megan Reza and Morgan Pautsch, senior outside hitter Delaney McCraney and senior opposite Avaé Masaniai.

“I thought we sided out really well and served tough tonight,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he schedules games like Thursday’s road game at Mira Costa to give his team a feeling of a postseason atmosphere.

“Usually, the environment at the Mira Costa gym is intense and that gives a team a sense of what it’s like to play big matches in a hostile environment,” he said. “But it wasn’t as crowded tonight as I thought it might be. Mira Costa students were out of school today due to Rosh Hashanah, and I think that had something to do with the gym not being full.”

Now that Edison has disposed of Mira Costa, the Chargers can turn their attention to Orange Lutheran, their opponent on Saturday. They’ll host the Lancers, ranked No. 5 preseason in the Division I-AA poll, at 6 p.m. at Edison.

“It’s another big one,” Jackson said. “We hope to fill our gym. We want everyone to come out.”