Newport Harbor boys’ volleyball sweeps Edison, moves into outright first place in Sunset League

It seemed like a fairly standard hour-long match, but Friday’s Sunset League sweep over Edison had added significance for Newport Harbor High boys’ volleyball coach Rocky Ciarelli.

Ciarelli said that the Sailors’ 25-14, 25-20, 25-7 home win over the Chargers marked his 400th as a high school head coach. He said he only counts best-of-five match wins in that total, not best-of-three tournament victories.

“When I started coaching, back before World War II, they didn’t really play two out of three,” Ciarelli joked.

Ciarelli hasn’t been coaching for quite that long, as he coached at Huntington Beach High for 24 years from 1985-2008 and is in his fourth season in charge of the Newport Harbor boys. The set format hasn’t mattered much for the undefeated Sailors this season.

Newport Harbor (19-0, 3-0 in league) moved to outright first place in league over Edison (7-10, 2-1). Senior outside hitter Cole Pender had 13 kills for the Sailors, the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 1.

Junior Dayne Chalmers added seven kills and senior middle blocker Ethan Talley tallied six for the defending league champion Sailors, who earned their 16th straight league win. Newport Harbor got five kills and five blocks from junior Jack Higgs while junior Joe Karlous dished out 33 assists for the winners, who were only seriously challenged in the second set.

“We’ve got pretty good chemistry this year,” Pender said. “Everybody’s buying in, and we’re a tough team to beat right now. We’re playing really hard and just playing together as a team. I feel like any team that comes in this building, if we play our game, I don’t think they have a chance.”

Pender knows that the next team to come into the Sailors’ gym will be rival Corona del Mar for the Battle of the Bay match on April 7. CdM has won the rivalry match four straight years.

The first time the Back Bay rivals played this season, in the Orange County Championships final on March 19 at Edison, Newport Harbor saved five match points to earn a dramatic 19-25, 26-24, 19-17 best-of-three win.

Friday night’s victory over Edison lacked that drama, though the Chargers pulled within 22-20 late in the second set on a kill by senior middle blocker Austin Pratt. Newport Harbor immediately responded, however, with back-to-back kills by Pender, then a block by Pender and senior middle blocker Will Axton on set point.

“We played well,” Ciarelli said. “We stayed consistent. Sometimes it’s hard to stay consistent with us, hopefully.”

Newport Harbor raced out to a 17-3 lead in the third set, which allowed substitutes to come in. A block by juniors Alec Patterson and Blake Ludes set up match point, which Ludes converted on a kill.

Edison returns to action with a league match at home against Fountain Valley on April 10. Junior outside hitter James Carpenter led the Chargers with six kills against Newport Harbor, while junior opposite Justin Pennington had five.

“We worked hard in the first and second sets, and then I feel like our attitudes brought us down in the third,” Pennington said. “We weren’t passing as well … [and] their serving runs just killed us.”

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