Eagles end season with win

Boys' Volleyball

Estancia closes out Orange Coast League play with win against Costa Mesa and splits rivalry with Mustangs.

May 02, 2012|By David Carrillo Peñaloza

Members of the Estancia High boys' volleyball team… (KEVIN CHANG, Daily…)

COSTA MESA — Paul Muñoz threw his roster in the trash when he completed his third season as coach of the Estancia High boys' volleyball team.

The season was not a waste, though.

The Eagles closed things out at home Wednesday with a 19-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-19 victory against cross-town rival Costa Mesa. The win allowed Estancia to split the two-match series with the Mustangs in Orange Coast League play.

Neither team is moving on to the CIF Southern Section playoffs next week, but this season they each showed signs of getting there in the future.

The Eagles finished 3-7 in league, earning one more victory in league than they did last season. Those two league wins last season came against the Mustangs, so they proved they could beat someone other than Costa Mesa this year.

The Mustangs actually won this year. That is a huge improvement for a program, which went winless in league last season.

The Mustangs prevailed twice in league and finished 2-8. Jeff Weihert, in his first season as the Costa Mesa boys' coach, has his team believing it can compete.

"Guys didn't really win anything at all last year. Nothing, not even in [the nonleague portion of the schedule]," said Weihert, adding that he led the Mustangs to five overall wins.

Muñoz said his Eagles won five matches as well.

"This is the most wins we've had in the past three years, with the [nonleague] and regular season [schedules] combined," Muñoz said.

Muñoz expected more from his Eagles. Making the postseason for the first time under his watch was his goal for the team.

The Eagles needed to place in the top three in league to earn an automatic playoff berth. They fell short, only beating Godinez and Costa Mesa in the second part of league and the Eagles finished in fourth place, behind Saddleback, which went 6-4 in league.

"Our focus was to make CIF and that's something we haven't done [in six years] here at this school," Muñoz said. "We would've had to have beat Saddleback, beat Godinez and take care of Mesa [to make the playoffs]. What would've had set [up a playoff berth for us] was if we [had] beat Calvary [Chapel], too."

Estancia met two of the needs. The last one ensured that the Mustangs wouldn't sweep the rivalry.

Dylan Gaitan, an outside hitter, made sure the Eagles went out as winners. The senior recorded a match-high 18 kills, most of them coming in the final three sets.

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