Sailors feel good again

NEWPORT BEACH— Having defeated Santa Margarita High Friday night, the Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball team accomplished goal No. 1: escaping the first round of the playoffs victorious.

The Sailors battled through three close matches, winning, 25-23, 25-22, 31-29.

It was important for the team and for Coach Dan Glenn after Newport Harbor was eliminated last year in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.

“It’s a big deal,” said senior middle blocker Weston Dunlap. “[Glenn] made a big deal about it before the match, so we really had to come out strong and not have that happen again.”

The Sailors will have a revenge match against Long Beach Wilson, the team they lost to in the playoffs last season. The Bruins defeated Alemany in their first-round match, 25-18, 25-10, 25-15.

Newport Harbor also lost to Long Beach Wilson at the beginning of this season, 25-22, 25-22, at the Poway Best of the West Tournament in San Diego.

“I still feel like we’re learning, and it’s pretty dumb for me to say that in the playoffs, but I just feel like that’s the way we are,” Glenn said. “We got by today. We survived today, and I think we’ll be better on Tuesday, so I’m really excited to move on.”

The main issue will be improving on unforced errors, which kept the Eagles (21-16) close. The Sailors (20-15) ultimately won the last game when an error finally went their way, and Tucker Alleborn was unable to keep the ball in play.

“We kind of let up a little bit. We thought we had the game, and we stopped playing hard like we were the first two games and it was close,” said Dunlap, the UCLA-bound senior who had 10 kills. “The last two points we gave up, and it cost us, but we made up for it.”

Junior Tucker Peleuses led with 18 kills and junior setter Kyle Caldwell finished with 42 assists and seven kills. Newport Harbor lost last year because the Sailors’ blocking was subpar, Peleuses said. He said their defensive play improved this season, too.

“The first game and the third game could have gone either way,” Glenn said. “It’s a three-game sweep, but it was a very close match.”

Newport Harbor led by as many as six in the first game, but Santa Margarita went on a 10-2 run that gave the Eagles an 18-20 lead before Glenn called a timeout.

With the Eagles right on their heels in Game 3, he called another.

“I explained to my team in the timeout that Santa Margarita wasn’t going to lose this game. [The Eagles] lost the first game on a bad play,” Glenn said. “They weren’t going to lose the match; we were going to have to come out and earn it. It was good to see we hung in there and didn’t fall apart.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].