HUNTINGTON BEACH – The Los Alamitos boys volleyball team entered the Orange County Championships determined not to let a midweek defeat damper the team’s early-season success.
“We knew we had to bounce back from that,” senior outside hitter Brian Beggs said. “We knew we didn’t play that great of a game (in a three-set loss to Mater Dei on Wednesday) and we know we’re a good team.”
The Griffins (13-2) have proved that with their play in the tournament. They defeated San Clemente and Santa Margarita on Friday to finish first in pool 2.
Los Alamitos opened play Saturday with a 25-20, 25-18 victory over Dana Hills and followed it by defeating Edison, 30-28, 25-15, in the semifinals.
Los Alamitos will face Corona del Mar (9-3) in Monday’s Division 1 final at Edison at 7 p.m.
“The question was how were we going to stack up against teams that are at that level,” Los Alamitos coach Mike Whitcomb said. “That was the big question mark going into yesterday (Friday) and after winning four straight matches, I think we’re going to be OK.”
Led by seniors Beggs, Anthony Wong-Orantes, Adam Simonetti and Jonathan Frenzel, the Griffins performed well, even in tight situations.
In the opening set against Edison, Los Alamitos had a 24-22 lead, but couldn’t finish of the Chargers. Edison rallied to stay alive several times. At 28-28, Frenzel put the Griffins back on the verge of winning and they did one point later.
Los Alamitos led the entire way in the second set.
CdM finished first in its pool and defeated San Clemente, 25-18, 28-30, 15-13, and Tesoro, 25-19, 26-24, on Saturday to advance to the finals.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
