One of the goals this season for Coach Craig Moothart and the Trabuco Hills girls volleyball team is winning the Sea View League title.
After a couple of years of being an afterthought in the league title discussion, the Mustangs believe this year’s group is the one that could end the title drought.
“These kids have put the expectation on themselves,” Moothart said. “I only have them for a couple of months, there’s not a lot a whole lot I can do. I can move them with X’s and O’s, but these kids saw the potential.
“That’s exciting for me as their coach.”
The Mustangs, ranked 10th in the county and fourth in CIF-SS Division 1A, continued the positive start to their season by sweeping host Mission Viejo, 25-16, 25-18, 25-18, in a league match Tuesday.
Allie Kantor led the Mustangs (21-2, 2-0) with 19 kills. Carly McKinney and Serena Hudson had five and four, respectively.
Ali Neilson led the Diablos (7-6, 1-1) with nine kills.
Despite their second consecutive sweep in league, Moothart said there are still some things the Mustangs need to improve before they turn their attention to Thursday’s showdown against defending league and CIF-SS champion Aliso Niguel.
“There were some things we did well, but we were really sloppy and made a lot of errors,” he said. “We’ve been trying to (remind) ourselves to reduce the errors when we’re out of system, and let’s come back, trust our side out and play a little defense.
“It could always be better, someone once told me.”
The Diablos trailed, 20-18, late in the second set and got as close as 16-13 in the third, but couldn’t extend the match.
“I liked the way our team kind of fought and battled for the points that we had tonight,” Mission Viejo coach Gus Culver said. “They (Trabuco Hills) played really good defense and transitioned very well. We were kind of off-balanced on defense.
“We had opportunities, but we weren’t able to capitalize on a lot of chances.”
The teams meet again Oct. 20 at Trabuco Hills.
Also in the Sea View League
No. 5 Aliso Niguel 3, Laguna Hills 0: McKenna Ross led the visiting Wolverines (11-2, 1-0) with 15 kills and Kathryn Plummer had eight with 18 assists, four digs and four aces in the 25-19, 25-7, 25-12 victory.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
