The South Coast League boys volleyball title will be decided this week.
Tesoro and San Clemente begin the week tied for first place at 5-1. The teams meet Thursday night at Tesoro.
In their first meeting on April 12, the Tritons defeated the Titans in five sets.
Tesoro plays Trabuco Hills on Tuesday night.
Things are more cluttered behind Mater Dei in the Trinity League. Santa Margarita is in second (5-2), and Servite and St. John Bosco are tied at 4-3.
The Friars are the team to watch this week, with games against the St. John Bosco (Tuesday) and Santa Margarita (Thursday).
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
GIRLS LACROSSE
The Mater Dei girls lacrosse team took a big step Saturday toward securing the top spot in the upcoming U.S. Lacrosse Orange County Championships.
Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in the county, defeated second-ranked St. Margaret’s, 19-5.
Mater Dei concludes the regular season at home Tuesday night against Santa Margarita (5 p.m.) and Thursday at Foothill (3 p.m.)
The pairings for the 16-team playoffs for boys and girls will be announced Saturday.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
BOYS LACROSSE
St. Margaret’s snapped a two-game losing skid with an 8-6 victory over Poway on Saturday. Nick Shanks led the Tartans with four goals.
In another O.C-San Diego match-up, Foothill edged La Costa Canyon, 12-11 in overtime. Kevin Kodzis scored the winning goal for the Knights.
– DAMIAN CALHOUN
SWIMMING
Santa Margarita’s Grant Shoults received a humorous congratulatory message on Twitter from a legendary Orange County swimmer after the Foothill Swim Games.
Tustin graduate Michael Cavic, who famously almost beat Michael Phelps at the 2008 Olympics, noticed a mention on Twitter that the Stanford-bound Shoults broke his 2001 meet record in the 100-yard butterfly by about three-quarters of a second.
“Congrats, @grantshoults!” Cavic wrote on Twitter over the weekend. “Stanford, though? Been a while since a Cardinal did anything mentionable in swimming.”
Cavic attended Cal, Stanford’s heated rival. In 2008, he raced for Serbia when he lost to Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly final by one one-hundredth of a second in a controversial finish. Cavic ended his post on Twitter to Shoults with a wink symbol. …
One of the most competitive leagues in Orange County swimming has gotten even tougher.
The upcoming Pacific Coast League boys finals, featuring top-five ranked University, Northwood and Corona del Mar, added Hunter Hitchens to the mix last week.
Hitchens, a sophomore who had been out with CIF-SS eligibility issues, helped Northwood edge Corona del Mar in a dual meet and outdistance University for the runner-up spot to Mater Dei at the Foothill Swim Games on Saturday.
“Hunter Hitchens looks awesome,” Coach Ryan Vande Wydeven of defending league champion University said.
“(The race) was already ramped up in my mind. It’s teams (ranked) three, four and five. That’s a big deal. But now, it’s going to be really challenging. It’s going to take a lot. … It will be a showdown.”
The Pacific Coast finals are May 6 at Woollett Aquatics Center at 2 p.m. …
Edison’s Diggy Riley, who has been coaching swimming in some capacity at the Sunset League school for 15 years, will resign at the end of this season.
The two-time county coach of the year said he is excited for the upcoming championship season but is looking forward to a break. He also has a new outlook on coaching and life after the death of his wife, Sally, last spring from cancer.
“I’m sure everybody says it who has a loved one they’ve lost: the simple things in life have now become so important,” he said.
“What’s important is just enjoying life … and my faith has a lot to due with that. Just believing God has a plan for me.”
– DAN ALBANO
