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  • San Clemente's Peter Van Liefde, right, sets the ball as...

    San Clemente's Peter Van Liefde, right, sets the ball as teammate Shawn Stephens looks on Tuesday at Dana Hills High School.

  • San Clemente's Aaron Strange, right, serves the ball Tuesday at...

    San Clemente's Aaron Strange, right, serves the ball Tuesday at Dana Hills High.

  • Dana Hills' Matt Simmons, right, celebrates a scored point with...

    Dana Hills' Matt Simmons, right, celebrates a scored point with teammate Jake Lorscheider Tuesday at Dana Hills High.

  • San Clemente's Nick Goldstone, center, spikes the ball Tuesday at...

    San Clemente's Nick Goldstone, center, spikes the ball Tuesday at Dana Hills High School.

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Damian Calhoun. Sports Newsroom Assistant.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

DANA POINT – After the first two sets, it appeared that it was going to be a short and frustrating night for the third-ranked San Clemente boys volleyball team.

The Tritons dropped the first two sets to 10th-ranked Dana Hills and survived match point in the fourth set, but eventually escaped with a 20-25, 25-27, 25-17, 27-25, 15-12 victory in a South Coast League match.

“It took a while for us to get our rhythm and we made a lot of unforced errors the first couple of games,” San Clemente coach Ken Goldstone said. “You can’t give away points. I thought we hung in there and kept playing hard.

“I told them that if we could (win) a game and get some rhythm, then we would be OK.”

Still, the Tritons (14-4, 3-0) needed a break to stay alive.

Late in the fourth set, the Dolphins (12-6, 3-1) had a swing for match point, but didn’t put the ball in play. With the set tied at 25, the Tritons had set point after another Dolphins error. One point later, a kill from Peter Van Liefde ended the set, extending the match.

“Whoever lost made the most unforced errors,” Dana Hills coach Oz Simmons said. “We made very few unforced errors in the first and second sets and we made more and more the third, fourth and fifth sets.

“At the end, the fourth and the fifth set, probably 75 percent of their points were unforced errors by us … and a few of them were kind of dumb. We sort of gave them some critical points.”

Dana Hills led, 7-3, in the fifth set, forcing the Tritons to take a timeout.

The momentum quickly swung in the Tritons’ favor after that. Trailing 10-7, the Tritons scored four consecutive points to take the lead.

“The other team is going to make mistakes,” Goldstone said. “We can’t keep compounding those with our own.”

With the fifth set tied at 12-12, the Tritons capped the comeback with the final three points, a kill from Aaron Strange, ace from Marcus McGuire and block from Brandon Hopper.

Shawn Stephens led the Tritons with 13 kills. Hopper, Van Liefde added eight and Strange had nine.

Grady Yould led the Dolphins with 15 kills. Teddy Fitzgerald added 10.

The teams will meet again May 1 at San Clemente.