Brian Kaiserman
Staff Writer
Mira Costa’s boys beach volleyball team narrowly edged out the competition on Saturday, extending its perfect record in Bay League play.
The Mustangs defeated the Palos Verdes Sea Kings 2-1 overall in the morning and recorded a massive win against local rival Redondo in the afternoon, via another 2-1 nail biter.
After dropping its first of three matches to Redondo in two sets, the team relied on junior Bobby Barkley and sophomore Thomas Kretschmer to provide it with an opportunity to maintain its undefeated record in league. The dynamic duo came up big winning 21-12 in back to back sets.
“We were able to pass and serve really well which helped us to get the win. It’s always great to be able able to help out the team, especially when they need me to come through in pressure situations,” Kretschmer said.
Costa needed one more victory from senior Cameron Steen and junior Max Cajuste to defeat the Sea Kings. The mustangs completed the comeback after Steen and Cajuste made quick work of their opponents, winning 21-9 in the first set and closing out the match 21-15 in the second. Steen said Cajuste’s serving carried them.
Palos Verdes Beach Volleyball Website:
“Max’s serving definitely helped us solidify the win,” Steen said. “We knew we were the better team going in, so we just had to avoid mistakes and we were able to accomplish a win.”
In the afternoon the Mustangs faced off against Redondo and once again were able to prevail 2-1 after falling behind. Barkley delivered once more, this time playing with co-captain of the team, junior Dane Johnson. They won in two quick sets, notching a big win against their rivals.
“It felt really good to beat our rivals,” Johnson said. “They won at the playoffs last year so it was awesome to beat them and hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of the season.”
The final match of the day featured senior and co-captain Kevin Pinkerton playing with Kretschmer who was looking for his second win of the day. The Mustangs managed to pull out the victory in two highly contested sets, 21-18 then 21-16.
“We were able to stick to our game plan and we executed on almost every point,” Pinkerton said. “Beating two big rivals in the same day is an awesome feeling.”
It was another big day for Costa and first year head coach Kyle Denitz. According to Denitz: his main focus is to develop players and train fundamentals so that they can emulate AVP or FIVB level players as quickly as possible. The Mustangs certainly looked the part on Saturday.
“I was really proud of our guys today. The matches could’ve gone either way and we showed our tenacious attitude of battling through our games,” said coach Denitz.
The Mustangs are now 4-0 in Bay league and 5-1 overall. Next week on Saturday, the boys will play Santa Monica and San Clemente for the second time this season. They look to add even more to their unbeaten streak, which currently stands at four wins in a row.
“Practice should be fun this week, talking about the victory over Redondo,” Denitz said. “Being undefeated in league is nice. It gives us an opportunity to work harder because we don’t want that to be taken away from us.”
Leave a Reply