ANAHEIM – Grant Mooney is starting to fit into his role for Servite’s boys volleyball team, and it showed Tuesday night.
Mooney, who became the starter this season, had 56 assists and led an offense with four players with at least 10 kills. But perhaps most importantly, he helped lead a fifth-set comeback as the eighth-ranked Friars defeated No. 9 Santa Margarita to take over sole possession of first place in the Trinity League.
The scores of the match were, 25-19, 22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 17-15.
“He’s definitely one of the best setters in our league and he’s really coming along,” Servite coach Matt Marrujo said of Mooney. “This is his first time getting an opportunity to play and start, and he does a great job of running the offense and communicating with myself and he’s doing some good things.”
After losing the second and third sets by a combined five points, Mooney said the attitude among Servite’s players wasn’t disappointment.
“We had a couple of mental lapses here and there,” he said. “That happens in volleyball. There are always those tight battles in a match, but luckily we were able to get through those.
“We look at those sets and said that’s not who we are. We came back and we said we’re playing Servite volleyball and we won it. There’s nothing better than going on the (Spring) break with a win.”
Matthew Johnson led the Friars (13-9, 3-0) with 17 kills. Garrett Halsey added 16, and Micah Woolley and Dylan McCarthy had 13 and 10, respectively.
Mooney was on the varsity team last year as the backup setter. He credited that experience with helping him transition smoothly into his role this year.
“I was able to see everything that our other setter did, and I was able to take things that I liked from him and also take things I didn’t like from him,” Mooney said. “I was able to come in this year ready and know that I could take control and really form a good bond with our team and run a great offense.”
In the fifth set, the Friars survived match point by the Eagles, tying the score at 15-15. The Friars closed the match on consecutive blocks from Johnson.
James Thomas led the Eagles (7-7, 2-1) with 26 kills.
“I’m encouraged with what we have as far as the newer players to this environment,” Santa Margarita coach Justin DeBlasio said. “I think early on, we were real one dimensional as far as where the ball was going. Sometimes the breaks don’t go your way in that fifth set and you win by two, lose by two sometimes.”
