Andrew Fasano
Staff Writer
The Mustang fans piled the gym on Tuesday, hoping for deja vu of last years 3-0 sweep over Newport Harbor.
Mira Costa’s boys volleyball team lost to Newport Harbor High School 25-18, 25-22, and 26-24 in its first home game of the season on Tuesday night. Junior outside hitter Max Cajuste was the difference for the Mustang side, totaling 15 kills on the night.
“Tonight wasn’t our best performance,” Cajuste said. “Aside from a few of our good moments, we gave up too many easy points in the beginning of each game, making comebacks very difficult.”
The Mustangs lost the first set 25-18, despite four kills from Cajuste. After trailing early 8-1, the Mustangs were unable to find its rhythm throughout the rest of the set. Cajuste said that the Mustangs fought hard, but it wasn’t enough for a win.
“We started the set shaky, and the scoreboard was to show for it,” Cajuste said. “We played well from then on, but it was just too little too late for us to find our way on the winning side of that set.”
Despite three missed serves for Newport Harbor in the second set, the Mustangs were unable to stage a comeback, losing 25-22. Junior outside hitter Bobby Barkley said the team played well throughout the set, but small errors were the cause to their defeat.
“We had a solid second part of the second set,” Barkley said. “We were able to make some clutch plays to keep us in the game; unfortunately we were just unable to keep the momentum through the entire set.”
The Mustangs began the third set with an early ace from junior outside hitter Dane Johnson and two quick kills from Cajuste, both of which were assisted by Barkley. Barkley said the team played well, but was unable to hold the momentum for long enough to break away.
“We played our best volleyball in the third set,” Barkley said. “We had some very important plays that helped us gain a lot of the momentum. We just couldn’t hold onto our leads, allowing for too much of a shifting in momentum.”
The Mustangs, now 5-3 overall will play next in its first Bay League game on Thursday at Peninsula High School. Johnson said that the team showed great potential in Tuesday’s loss and said that their next focal point will be on blocking, which will help them in the long run.
“A loss like this one shows the talent and potential we have to mainly compete, and also to win games,” Johnson said. “It just takes hard work and focus in practice and the instinct to dial in when we need to. We’ll be working hard in practice preparing for what’s to come.”
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