Trabuco Hills finishes off Los Alamitos

Los Alamitos' Austin Marriott, left, and Harrison Knott, middle, attempt to tap the ball over Trabuco Hills' Cristian Rodriguez during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match at Los Alamitos.
Los Alamitos' Cole Thompson bumps the ball during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match against Trabuco Hills at Los Alamitos.
Los Alamitos' Teddy Howard, middle, hits the ball past the blocking attempt of Trabuco Hills' Cole Finley, left, and Cristian Rodriguez during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match at Los Alamitos.
Los Alamitos' Harrison Knott, right, taps the ball past Trabuco Hills' Cole Finley during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match at Los Alamitos.
Trabuco Hills' Cole Smith, middle, hits the ball past the blocking attempt of Los Alamitos' Austin Marriott, left, and Teddy Howard during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match at Los Alamitos.
Los Alamitos' Austin Marriott, right, blocks a shot by Trabuco Hills' Tanner Robertson during Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match at Los Alamitos.
Trabuco Hills' Chase Moothart bumps the ball during a CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match against Los Alamitos on Tuesday at Los Alamitos.
The Trabuco Hills boys volleyball bench celebrate after winning the first set of a CIF-SS Division 1 first round playoff match against Los Alamitos on Tuesday at Los Alamitos.

By Damian Calhoun | dcalhoun@scng.com | Daily Breeze

May 13, 2014 at 10:54 p.m.

All of the momentum the Trabuco Hills boys volleyball team had after the first set quickly went away in the second.

Fortunately for Coach David Hollaway and the rest of the Mustangs, there was time to turn things around.

“I knew our guys would come back and fight,” Hollaway said. “It was just a matter of if we would come back and have a voice.”

Trabuco Hills had the final say, winning the final two sets to defeat host Los Alamitos, 28-26, 10-25, 25-22, 25-20, in a CIF-SS Division 1 first-round game Tuesday night.

Cole Smith led the Mustangs (22-8) with 15 kills. Kyle Radecki added 10. Setter Christian Rodriguez had 37 assists. Harrison Knott had 13 kills for the Griffins (18-9).

The third set was up for grabs late with the score at 22-22. The Mustangs scored the final three points, the final coming on a kill from Smith for a 2-1 lead.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth set and led comfortably throughout, until a late charge from the Griffins. An ace from Cole Thompson cut the score to 22-20, forcing the Mustangs into a timeout.

When play resumed, the Mustangs scored the final three points to close out the match.

“The course of the year, we’ve blown some games and we’ve been working on separating between the games and tell them we still have to win three,” Hollaway said. “Being down two, come back and win it in five, we’ve been there. We’ve actually flipped it the other way and lost some in five.

“We competed and we got louder, which was all we talked about. Volleyball was volleyball, we’re going to do what we do volleyball-wise, but if we can compete and get loud, that’s when we’re going to play better.”

The Mustangs will host Mira Costa in the second round Thursday.

The Griffins finished second in the Sunset League. The Mustangs were third in the South Coast League.

In Division 2:

Esperanza 3, Claremont 0: Jake Arnitz led the Aztecs (23-6) with 20 kills and Ryan Heller had 41 assists in the 25-16, 25-13, 25-18 victory at Esperanza.

In Division 4:

St. Margaret’s 3, Katella 1: Matt Nicholas recorded 25 kills to lead the Tartans to a 25-17, 20-25, 25-15, 25-20 victory at home.

Jack McCaffrey added 13 kills and Jameson Edwards had 10 for the Tartans.

In Division 5:

Garden Grove 3, Desert Christian 0: The second-seeded Argonauts opened the playoffs with a 25-12, 25-13, 25-12 victory.

Arturo Alday had eight kills and six blocks for Garden Grove. Thomas Taufetee had six kills and three aces.

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com