Costa Mesa Almost Trips Laguna

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Boys Volleyball (10-3, 6-0)

Costa Mesa, behind their talented right-side player Mason Tufuga, extended Laguna to the full five sets Tuesday, April 21, as the Breakers prevailed 22-25, 25-12, 25-14, 23-25, 15-10.

Breakers were missing two key players in MB Tyler Alter and right-side Jack Burgi, both Junior Olympic All-Americans.

Laguna led most of the first set despite eight unforced hitting errors, but faded late in the game to hand Mesa (11-5, 4-2) the win. Sets two and three were typical league games, but the fourth set was a battle from the start with Costa Mesa taking the initial two point lead on a serve receive error and center line foot fault. From there the two teams exchanged points with Laguna hitting nearly .500, but unable to generate a run to take control of the set.

The fifth and deciding set started slowly with errors by both teams, but behind the serving of Cole Paxson the Breakers stormed to a 6-3 lead to cruise for the match win, their 64th consecutive in league play and their 66th in the 67-match series history with the Mustangs.

Dane Olson led the Breakers with 27 kills hitting .380 while Mesa’s Tufuga had 28 kills hitting .305. Nick Rieckhoff added 15 kills and 13 digs for the Breakers, Pete Obradovich 14 kills and 10 digs, Reed Donenfeld 13 digs and four assists, while Isaac Wulff had 58 assists and six kills. Laguna’s JV easily won their 86th consecutive league match.

 

Last week:

April 14: Laguna d. Calvary Chapel 25-11, 25-21, 25-14

Pete Obradovich led with 11 kills and Nick Rieckhoff recorded 10 digs as the Breakers cruised past the Eagles at Dugger Gym. Nine different players recorded kills and tough Laguna serving recorded 10 aces.

 

April 16: Laguna d. Godinez 25-14, 25-9, 25-20

Pete Obradovich was stellar in serving racking up 24 rotation points. Dane Olson with 14 kills and Tyler Alter with 11 provided the fire power to sweep the Grizzlies. Cole Paxson had 10 digs and Isaac Wullf added 35 assists. The team’s 65 points off of kills, aces, and blocks was the second highest total recorded for a three set match in the rally scoring era, which began in 2004.

 

A tough challenge loomed at home on Friday, April 24, when the Breakers host Dana Hills, currently ranked sixth in Division 1, third in the county and first in the South Coast League. Varsity should start about 5:30 p.m.

Next week Laguna travels to Estancia (7-11) and Calvary (6-13) before participating in the 45th Annual Redondo Tournament on May 1-2. The tournament will feature all the top division teams as well as San Clemente and Dana Hills.

 

SSCIF D-2 Poll for April 20: 1 – Laguna Beach, 2 – Burroughs/Burbank, 3 – Oak Park, 4 – Valencia/Valencia, 5 – Aliso Viejo, 6 – Simi Valley, 7 – South Pasadena, 8 – Royal, 9 – Canyon/CC, 10 – Long Beach Poly, others: West Ranch, Lakewood, Capistrano Valley, Crescenta Valley

 

 

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