Sailors volleyball team advances to second round

NEWPORT BEACH — Coach Steve Astor said there is one boys’ volleyball team Newport Harbor High has wanted to play all season.

The Sailors earned a shot to face that team.

Newport Harbor gets to see Dana Hills after the host Sailors swept Ventura, 27-25, 25-14, 25-16, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs on Tuesday.

While Astor said the site of Thursday’s second-round matchup between the Sailors (22-8) and Dolphins (29-4) would be decided by a coin flip on Wednesday morning, he doesn’t care where the match is played.

Astor is that confident in his Sailors, who went unranked in the final Division 1 coaches’ poll, against the sixth-ranked Dolphins.

“I’m not too worried about where it is, home or away,” Astor said. “I’m just worried about us being ready to play. I know they will. I think these guys have always wanted to play [the Dolphins]. We’ve seen them from afar and have a lot of respect for them.”

–By David Carrillo Peñaloza, @DCPenaloza, Daily Pilot

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Edison baseball program volunteers to coach Challenger Division kids

Edison High Coach Steve Lambright wanted the players of his baseball program to experience what is really important in life Saturday morning at Westminster Park.

Along the way to finding that importance the players also discovered little smiles, pure joy and genuine love for the game.

The Edison Chargers helped produce that, as players from the freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams volunteered to coach and play with kids from the Challenger Division of the Huntington Beach Little League.

“Before we got here, I told them they are going to work with kids who have special needs,” Lambright said. “I try to teach them baseball through life lessons. Now they are out here and working with these kids. They are helping and providing encouragement. That’s what it’s all about.”

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Corona del Mar boys win league title

Before the Pacific Coast League finals, Coach Bill Sumner was confident his boys’ track and field team could win the league title, but he wasn’t making any predictions. That’s not his style.

“I don’t cash any checks until we put money in the bank,” Sumner said, using a metaphor as an example that he doesn’t make predictions.

All the hard work the Sea Kings have put in paid off Friday at Irvine High, where the boys’ team won the PCL title with an impressive team effort and standout performances from John Swigert and Nick McGuinness.

The CdM girls’ team finished third at the PCL finals.

“I like to be confident and we had every position to win the league title,” Sumner said. “But you still have to run the races.”

The CdM 4×100-meter relay team certainly ran hard and quick. Thomas Testini, Nick Willard, Cole Cottrell and Swigert broke the school record, winning in 42.69 seconds. They broke the previous record (42.76) set in 1972 by Joe Tosti, John Miles, Matt Cox and Carlo Tosti.

Swigert, who scored 25 points, also won the 200 in 22.49 and the 400 in 49.42. Plus he was on the victorious 4×400 relay that won in 3 minutes, 25.25 seconds and also included Troy Hardy, Ryan Rodrigues, Swigert and Kyle Iverson.

“The team came together,” Sumner said. “They all knew they had a shot at [the PCL title].”

McGuinness scored 26 points with high finishes in three events. He won the 300 hurdles in 39.36 and took second in the 110 hurdles (15.49) and high jump (5 foot, 10 inches).

CdM’s Braden Brahs won the high jump, clearing 6-1.

Alex Imani was also a league champ for the Sea Kings with his big win in the discus (158-6).

“The secret to us winning is not a guy, but it’s several guys doing multiple events,” Sumner said.

The longtime CdM coach was thrilled his boys’ team won the league title. It adds to a great year the school is having in athletics. Plus it’s impressive since the small school has so many standout athletes in other sports such as lacrosse and volleyball, both having superb seasons.

The CdM boys grabbed the league title with 166 points. Woodbridge was second with 142.

On the girls’ side, CdM scored 74.5, finishing behind champion Woodbridge (175) and runner-up Irvine (116).

Kristen Rivera won the 800 in 2:16.19 for the Sea Kings. Karléh Wilson also a league champion for CdM, winning the shot put (40-1½). She was second in the discus (126-9).

Ashlee Powers finished second in the 3,200 in 11:01.80 and third in the 1,600 in 5:09.03.

The CdM league champs and others who qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries will compete Saturday at Jim Scott Stadium.

Ayieni repeats at OC Marathon

Peter Omae Ayieni crosses the finish line for first place in the OC Marathon with a time of 2:31:18. (Steven Georges)

As he turned the corner and ran toward the finish-line tape, Peter Omae Ayieni knew he would become the men’s champion of the eighth annual OC Marathon.

Ayieni, a 34-year-old from Kenya, believed he could win the race since the sixth-mile mark, when he said he felt comfortable. He went on to win his second straight men’s overall title in 2 hours, 31 minutes, 18 seconds Sunday morning. He finished more than three minutes ahead of runner-up Nate Clayson, a 26-year-old from Murray, Utah, who came across in 2:34:50.

Ayieni wasn’t the only repeat winner. Maika Carlsen, a 31-year-old exercise physiologist from Providence, Utah, won the women’s title for the third straight year, this time in 2:53:13. Stephanie Kato, 23, of San Jose was second in 2:55:05.

A race record 18,000 runners were registered for the marathon, half-marathon, 5K and Kids Run the OC races. The marathoners began at Fashion Island and ran through Newport Beach, Irvine, Santa Ana and ended at the OC Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa.

For more photos from the OC Marathon, click here.

–Cesar Gonzalez, Special to the Daily Pilot

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OCC baseball advances to Super Regional

COSTA MESA — It was back to business for the Orange Coast College baseball team on Sunday. And, as has been the case during a monumental 2012 season, business is booming for the Pirates.

The No. 1-ranked team in the state, which is also ranked atop one national poll, hammered Los Angeles Valley, 9-1, to complete a best-of-three sweep in the Southern California Regional held Saturday and Sunday at OCC.

The Pirates needed extra innings to prevail, 6-5, on Saturday, when they lost a 4-0 lead in the ninth and fell behind in the 10th, before rallying for the walk-off triumph.

But Sunday was more of a walk in the ballpark for Coach John Altobelli’s 33-4-1 juggernaut, which continues to display more than enough talent to offset its picayune weaknesses.

“This was more us today,” Altobelli said after Sunday’s conquest, in which freshman pitcher Brandon Brennan allowed no earned runs and just six hits in eight innings to improve to 10-1. “We were more business-like. A lot of guys were doing things differently [Saturday], than they have done all year. So, we talked about going back to our routine and what we do and not trying to do any more because it’s the playoffs. We don’t need to try harder, because it’s the playoffs. We just need to do what we do.”

What the Pirates did Sunday was amass 16 hits and score in four innings.

–Barry Faulkner, @BarryFaulkner5, Daily Pilot

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UCI sweeps to NCAA title

LOS ANGELES — All through its postseason run, the deepest team UC Irvine men’s volleyball Coach John Speraw ever had kept shuffling the deck. But in the NCAA final against top-ranked USC on Saturday night, the Anteaters merely rode their same hot hand.

Senior opposite Carson Clark, a four-time All-American, pounded a match-high 22 kills with a .465 hitting percentage to help the No. 2-ranked ‘Eaters top to Trojans, 25-22, 34-32, 26-24, in front of 9,612 at USC’s Galen Center.

The victory, in front of the third-largest NCAA championship men’s volleyball crowd ever, gave UCI the program’s third NCAA crown in six seasons. Men’s volleyball now matches men’s water polo with three NCAA titles for UCI.

“Carson is the man,” summed up UCI junior setter Chris Austin, who also stepped up with 48 assists and a team-best 15 digs.

Clark, the school’s all-time kill leader with 1,861, had 10 kills in Game 2 to help UCI (26-5) rally from a 14-7 deficit. He had seven more in the third set, by which time Speraw had delivered instructions to Austin about going to the go-to guy. He was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

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Former CdM star signs as rookie free agent with Jacksonville Jaguars

Erik Rask, a former Corona del Mar High standout, has been invited to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ rookie mini-camp after he signed a free-agent contract with the NFL team.

Rask, who starred at the University of Pennsylvania as a linebacker, was one of 20 rookies invited to the mini-camp this weekend. He is the 17th player under Quakers Coach Al Bagnoli to sign an NFL contract.

Rask, one of two finalists for Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year award, played in every game for Penn the last three seasons. He earned first-team All-Ivy League honors in his final two years with the Quakers.

Rask led the Quakers with 83 tackles as a senior, making it the second straight year he’s led the team in that category. He finished with 11.5 tackles for losses, 2.5 sacks, two interceptions, six pass breakups, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

For his career, Rask totaled 190 tackles and helped the Quakers to a 28-12 overall record, 23-5 in the Ivy League.

Rask was part of two undefeated Ivy League titles won at Penn. In one stretch, the Quakers won 18 consecutive games in Ivy League play, marking the second longest winning streak in Ivy League history.

— From Daily Pilot staff reports

Laguna Breakers breeze to another volleyball crown

Laguna Beach's Maxx McCarter hits past Costa Mesa's Noah Jeyarajah during a match at Costa Mesa High on Monday. (SCOTT SMELTZER)

The Laguna Beach High boys’ volleyball program pieced together another undefeated run through Orange Coast League play by rolling to three victories in the past week.

The Breakers completed their league and regular-season schedule Wednesday by sweeping visiting Saddleback, 25-21, 25-19, 25-18. Jack Winn had 12 kills, Maxx McCarter nine kills, Weston Barnes eight kills and eight digs, Austin Hilleman eight kills, Jake Hexberg 19 digs and Winn (15) and Grifan Fair (26) combined for 41 assists.

Laguna, ranked third in CIF Southern Section Division 2, improved to 20-8. The Breakers went 10-0 in league and have won 86 straight league games (dating to May, 2009), and its last 38 league matches (dating to April, 2008).

The Breakers also scored a 25-16, 25-16, 25-16 sweep Monday at Costa Mesa, and sewed up the OCL title April 26 following a 25-12, 25-11, 25-10 home sweep of Godinez.

“It is awesome to win league in my first year,” Laguna Coach Scott Panaro said. “I am proud of the guys for their hard work and dedication. I am fortunate to have several players who play year-round in club and at the beach. This additional experience goes a long way and gives us an edge in our league.”

–Mike Sciacca, @MikeSciacca, Coastline Pilot

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Oilers wrap up perfect league season

Huntington Beach High boys’ volleyball Coach Craig Pazanti knew the laser-sharp focus his team possessed before the 2012 season got underway. So it didn’t come as a surprise to him that his Oilers would become champions of the Sunset League.

“These guys have been focused on their goals since last fall, last summer, in fact,” Pazanti said. “They knew what they wanted to achieve, and they went out and did it. They felt that they had underachieved last year and were hungry this year.”

A year after finishing third in the Sunset standings and getting knocked out in the opening round of the postseason by eventual CIF Southern Section Division 1-champion Mater Dei, Huntington ascended to the league’s penthouse. On Tuesday, the Oilers wrapped up a perfect league season (10-0) and ran their win streak to 15 by defeating visiting Marina, 22-25, 25-15, 25-13, 25-20. Edgar Palos had 14 kills and nine digs, Zach Gates had nine kills and Ryan Desisto had 14 digs.

Andrew Pearson had 16 kills and nine digs, Logan Atkinson 14 kills and Chad McCalistar 15 digs and four kills for Marina (2-8 league).

–Mike Sciacca, @MikeSciacca, HB Independent

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UCI men’s volleyball advances to NCAA final

UC Irvine's Kevin Tillie (7), Will Montgomery (18), Daniel Stork (6) and Dan McDonnell (5) celebrate winning the second to last point in the final set against Penn State during the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship semifinal match. (Scott Smeltzer)

LOS ANGELES — In this, the men’s volleyball version of the Big Dance, UC Irvine did the equivalent of leaning against the wall, before getting fully into its groove.

For the third straight match, No. 1-seeded UCI fell behind early, allowing No. 4-seeded Penn State to boogie its way to a one-set lead.

But, just like the final two Mountain Pacific Tournament matches, when the Anteaters rallied to win in five games after losing the first two sets, they found their rhythm in time to advance in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship Thursday at USC’s Galen Center.

It turns out, all UCI needed to quell a little star-struck anxiety was a quick dose of defeat, as it claimed an 18-25, 25-18, 25-15, 25-19 triumph that moved the ‘Eaters one victory away from the program’s third national title in six seasons.

UCI (25-5) will face host USC (24-5) in Saturday’s championship match at 7 p.m. USC beat Lewis, 25-18, 25-12, 18-25, 27-25.

–Barry Faulkner, @BarryFaulkner5, Daily Pilot

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