Eagles own Mesa again

COSTA MESA — Jim Huffman wasn’t sure if he was going for win No. 100 as the Estancia High girls’ volleyball coach.

One thing Huffman was certain about Tuesday night was his team’s chance at winning increased when it played at Costa Mesa.

Estancia opened Orange Coast League play by sweeping its rival, 25-22, 25-11, 25-20, as Huffman picked up his 101st victory in his seventh year.

Unsure of the total, Huffman knew how many straight times Estancia has beaten the Mustangs.

“That’s the 11th match in a row,” Huffman said with a smile.

The last time Costa Mesa defeated Estancia was 2004. The Mustangs have gone through three coaches since the victory.

Their newest coach is Jim Mercer. He learned right away how difficult it is to beat Estancia (11-7, 1-0 in league).

The Mustangs are still trying to figure out how to play the sport, whereas the Eagles are attempting to start league strong despite some recent setbacks.

Seven matches into the season, Costa Mesa (2-5, 0-1) still doesn’t have a roster to hand out.

“This year they’re just writing them down,” Mercer said of the players’ names. “This one is from Alaska, so [Annie Sturm is] learning how to become a setter here. She just walked into the gym like during our little preseason and said, ‘Hey! I want to play.’ ”

Despite going up against a more experienced team, Costa Mesa still put up a fight.

Nine juniors tried to prevent a 1-2-3 outing at home. The Eagles have struggled after their 7-1 start.

Injuries have played a role. Two middle blockers missed action due to sprained ankles. Two other players came down with the flu. A freshman setter broke her foot.

The setter was on crutches Tuesday night. Yessenia Maldonado and Danielle Ulrich returned at middle blocker, trying to create problems for Costa Mesa with their size. Many times, the Mustangs failed to hit the ball over the net.

The Eagles allowed the opposition to keep the first and last games competitive.

At times, the Eagles looked really good, “and at times, like we’re going to fall asleep,” Huffman said. “That’s been our M.O. this year. I’m not knocking Costa Mesa, but when we play a team that really pushes us, we step up [and] we play hard.

“But we tend to play [to the level] with whomever we’re playing. We can make every match look close.”

Lily McLendon closed things out for Estancia.

The junior outside hitter finished with a match-high 15 kills, hammering a handful in Game 3 to put away the host.

Senior Amy Hartwell contributed 17 digs, 10 kills and two service aces. The combination of McLendon and Hartwell gives Estancia a 1-2 punch. Last year, the team heavily relied on Annie Tomasek for kills.

“The big thing when we lost Annie [to graduation] was, ‘How are we going to replace 20 kills per [match]?’ ” Huffman said. “We get more than 20 kills a [match] between the two of them combined.”

Second place in league for the Eagles again is likely. Early on, Huffman believed something bigger was possible

“The first couple of weeks I would’ve said, ‘Yeah, I think we have a shot,’ ” Huffman said of contending for a league title.

As for Costa Mesa, it has a ways to go before competing in league. It took the school some time to find a coach to replace Casey Petersen.

Mercer took the job before the start of the school year. He said he didn’t see himself coaching during the summer, when he was in the hospital for a couple of months.

With only two returning players in Alex Krohnfeldt and Shannon Walthers, Mercer said there is a lot of teaching.

“I had seven days after I got the job to prepare them for their first match,” said Mercer, who before taking the job used to coach on the club level at Team Complete Athlete in Fountain Valley. “Most of our other girls were learning. They’re beginners.”