Athlete of the Week: Pender takes down Oilers, streak

Whenever Coach Rocky Ciarelli calls in a result to the local newspaper, he says who won, then gives the scores of each set and the stats of one player. The player who always seems to stand out for the Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball team is Cole Pender.

One time this season, Ciarelli had to catch himself in a voice message he left. He said Huntington Beach, his former school, had won, before he corrected himself and said his Sailors did. The Sailors and the Oilers didn’t even play that night in early March when Ciarelli phoned in how his team performed.

The two programs met last week, and when Ciarelli left a voicemail that evening. At first, it sounded like he might have confused the two schools again. He said Newport Harbor beat Huntington Beach. You can forgive Ciarelli for sometimes forgetting where he’s coaching since he coached the Oilers for 24 years and this is only his second year in charge of the Sailors.

But what Ciarelli said happened in the match between the Sailors and Oilers actually took place. The Sailors not only topped the Oilers, they ended the sport’s longest successful run in the country.

Pender led the way, finishing with 15 kills, 10 digs, six service aces and one block in Newport Harbor’s 25-13, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21 win at Huntington Beach, halting the Oilers’ 121-match winning streak.

“I think everybody was making a big deal out of beating Huntington Beach,” Ciarelli said, “but for us the goal is to win the Sunset League.”

These days, Ciarelli isn’t one to show much emotion before, during or after a match. He’s 59 and he has enjoyed a lot of success, 500-plus wins with the boys’ and girls’ teams at Huntington Beach, two CIF Southern Section Division 1 titles with the boys and one in Division IIAA with the girls.

However, that night at Ciarelli’s alma mater, Pender saw a different coach.

“I think he was fired up,” Pender said.

Ciarelli likes what he has seen so far from the Sailors, ranked No. 1 in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll.

They took down the four-time defending league champion Oilers, and three days later at home against Los Alamitos, the Sailors didn’t have a letdown. Pender, a sophomore outside hitter, produced 11 kills, eight digs, one block and one ace in a 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 sweep of the Griffins.

The Sailors performed at a high level last week while on spring break.

“Nothing we can really do about it,” Pender said of not being able to take a trip during spring break. “You just kind of have to go with it.”

Pender and the Sailors are rolling, sitting atop the league at 4-0. They can close out the first half of league perfect with a win at home against Edison on Friday at 5:45 p.m.

The only team that had gone undefeated in league the last four years was Huntington Beach, and then Newport Harbor snapped the Oilers’ 41-match winning streak in league. Ciarelli believes the Sailors caught the Oilers at a good time, avenging their setback to Huntington Beach in the finals at the Best of the West Invitational in Poway on March 12.

“They played in the [Best of the West] when they [swept] us [in a best-of-three final], but the only match they had played since then [was when] they played Marina in [a] league [opener on March 25], so they had a good three or four weeks where they didn’t play much,” Ciarelli said of the Oilers. “We played [in] the Orange County [Championships] tournament [on March 18-19] and we played [Manhattan Beach] Mira Costa [in a nonleague match on March 22], so I think we were a little better prepared for the match than they were. Now the second time we play [the Oilers at home on April 22] will be a little different. They’ll be back to their regular routine.”

The Oilers are one match back of the Sailors in league, and that matchup between the two programs next week will most likely determine if Newport Harbor can claim its first league crown in five years. The Sailors shared second with Los Alamitos last year, their third runner-up finish in four years.

Winning league isn’t their only priority. Bringing a section title to Newport Harbor is as well.

Pender wasn’t even born when Newport Harbor last won the Division I title, coming against archrival Corona del Mar on May 29, 1999. Pender was born five months later. Pender expects the Sailors and Sea Kings, ranked No. 6, along with No. 2 Los Angeles Loyola, No. 4 Huntington Beach and No. 5 Mira Costa, to contend.

The Oilers are the reigning section champions, having won the top division in each of past three years. Last year, they beat Newport Harbor so badly in league once that Ciarelli said it felt like the Sailors lost in two sets, not three.

Times have changed.

Pender said Huntington Beach no longer intimidates the Sailors, who are 16-5 overall. They’re still young with six underclassmen and only one senior, but the Sailors are more experienced with Pender, a first-team all-league selection last year as a freshman, junior middle blocker Spencer Lawrence, sophomore middle blocker Ethan Talley, junior opposite Landon Monroe, junior setter Carlos Rivera and freshman outside hitter Dayne Chalmers.

The group led Newport Harbor to its first win against Huntington Beach since May 5, 2011. Pender said he wouldn’t call beating the Oilers an upset, before he asked Ciarelli for his thoughts.

“If you take the consensus of all people, they would say it’s an upset,” said Ciarelli, whose team became the first to knock off the Oilers since San Clemente beat Huntington Beach in the finals of the OC Championships on March 18, 2013. “I don’t want my team to think [its] upsetting anybody. I want my team to think [we can beat anybody].

“Huntington Beach is my hometown, it is my school, but I’m coaching Newport. It was bittersweet [that we beat the Oilers], but they won 121 in a row, so they can take a loss.”

The result was one Ciarelli was more than OK leaving on a voicemail.

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Cole Pender

Born: Oct. 14, 1999

Hometown: Costa Mesa

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 158 pounds

Sport: Volleyball

Year: Sophomore

Coach: Rocky Ciarelli

Favorite food: A Gulfstream steak

Favorite movie: “The Benchwarmers”

Favorite athletic moment: “Beating Huntington.”

Week in review: Pender recorded 15 kills, 10 digs, six service aces and one block in Newport Harbor’s 25-13, 24-26, 25-16, 25-21 win at Huntington Beach, halting the Oilers’ 121-match winning streak. He had 11 kills, eight digs, one block and one ace in the Sailors’ 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 sweep of Los Alamitos.