Estancia clinches playoff berth with four-set victory against rival Costa Mesa

When Alejandro De Mendoza took over the Estancia High boys’ volleyball program in December, he saw a lot of potential because of the school’s proximity to the beach.

For quite sometime, before De Mendoza arrived, the Eagles have looked like they have been playing in quicksand.

Estancia hasn’t had much success in the sport, especially since the inception of the Orange Coast League 10 years ago. De Mendoza didn’t expect many players to come out this year after the Eagles only won twice last season, one of those wins came in league.

“After tryouts, it started off with like 24 [players],” De Mendoza said. “They just started dropping like flies. They didn’t like the 6 a.m. practices.”

For those who stuck it out, De Mendoza has guided the Eagles somewhere they haven’t been in 11 years: the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Estancia clinched a berth into the Division 3 playoffs by knocking off rival Costa Mesa, 25-16, 25-22, 24-26, 26-24, at home on Thursday.

The Eagles improved to 6-3 in league, securing at least third place. They trail second-place Calvary Chapel by one match.

Estancia also ended Costa Mesa’s four-year run of sweeping the Battle for the Bell series. The Eagles won both matches this year, and for the first time, they will represent the Orange Coast League in the postseason.

De Mendoza is new to the rivalry, as well as being in charge of a varsity program.

One issue the 24-year-old does not have to worry about is who gets to play and who doesn’t.

There are only seven players on his roster, so only one has to wait for his turn on the bench.

“I don’t have any parents calling me at night, telling me why isn’t there kid playing,” De Mendoza said with a smile.

Everyone plays for De Mendoza, and his top players, Evan Pettingill and Liam Jason, rarely get a breather.

Those two hitters have to produce, and they did against Costa Mesa. Pettingill led Estancia with 17 kills and Jason had 15.

For their efforts, the Eagles are 11-8 overall. The program has one more victory than it totaled in the previous four seasons.

Buying into De Mendoza, a former player on the Orange Coast College men’s volleyball team,wasn’t hard once the Eagles began playing. They won their first three contests, defeating Magnolia, Ocean View and Segerstrom in a four-day stretch.

“For them, that was already more wins than they won in the last couple of years,” De Mendoza said. “At that point, they started believing.”

The Eagles have one more league contest, at 11-time Orange Coast League champion Laguna Beach (9-0) on Tuesday, before the playoffs start. The wild-card round is on May 6, the day after the section releases the playoff pairings.

Estancia will wait and see whom it gets to open the postseason with. The playoff appearance will mark the Eagles’ first since 2006, when they were a part of the Golden West League.

Costa Mesa Coach Todd Hanson has noticed a big change with De Mendoza at the helm.

“Their setter [Bennett Goodman] is solid. Their libero [Teagan Proctor] is a scrapper. That outside [Pettingill] brings a heavy arm,” Hanson said.

Life for Hanson without Mason Tufuga, who is a freshman at Stanford, is different. A year after taking second place in league at 8-2, Hanson’s Mustangs dropped to 1-8 in league.

The Eagles finished in that same dead-last spot a year ago. Times have changed for Estancia.

“I’m really happy [for] these guys,” said De Mendoza, whose team also includes Keenan Lawrence, Arthur Bishop and Ian Bolter. “A lot of these guys have been in the program for a while and they have struggled [with] coaches coming in and out. It’s tough to build a program and it’s tough to have success when there’s no stability. I’m hoping with our success this year we can build off it.”