Hayden lifts Servite to five-set victory

There wasn’t any need to disguise where the ball was going for the Servite boys volleyball team late in Tuesday’s CIF-SS Division 1 first-round match with Esperanza.

With the season on the line, Servite turned to Madison Hayden and he delivered.

“He’s our go-to-guy,” Servite coach Matt Marrujo said. “I told my setter (Kevin Kustura) when we went down 0-2 (in the match), that it was time to go to him.”

Hayden recorded 30 kills, including seven in the deciding fifth game, to lift the Friars (18-10) to a victory, 23-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-20, 15-11, over the Aztecs (22-5). He also had 10 digs.

Sam Hunt had 15 kills and Kyle Palmer added 10. Ryan Windisch (22) and Kustura (16) combined for 38 digs.

The Friars jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the fifth game. Esperanza managed to get within two points on a couple of occasions, but couldn’t get any closer.

Servite, who finished third in the Trinity League, will face either Westlake or Long Beach Wilson in the second round Thursday.

“It was a slow start,” Marrujo said. “The loud environment …we’ve never been in it before and it caught us off-guard.

“Toward the end of the match, we started playing like we know how to play and I think you saw the real Servite.”

The Friars came close to being swept. 

In the third game, the Friars took a 16-9 lead, forcing Esperanza coach Isaac Owens to call his second and last timeout.

However, the Aztecs, wouldn’t go quietly as they rallied back and eventually took a 20-18 lead. From that point, Hayden connected on four kills to help the Friars stay alive in the match.

That momentum carried over into the fourth game. Esperanza to cut the score to 20-19, but the Friars, thanks to a couple of hitting errors and a service error, managed to take the game, evening the match and sending things to a deciding fifth game.

“We came out slow and we weren’t really playing our game,” Hayden said. “But we still had faith that we would come back and win.

“In the third, fourth and fifth games, we kept saying to ourselves, this is our match and that we were going to win.”

Also in Division 1:

Newport Harbor 3, Harvard-Westlake 0: Cody Caldwell had 21 kills and Ian Sequeira had 37 assists, leading the fourth-seeded Sailors (23-8) to the 25-20, 25-22, 25-19 home victory.

Newport Harbor will face San Clemente in the second round.

Mater Dei 3, Huntington Beach 0: Zach La Cavera led the Monarchs (24-3) with 12 kills in their 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 home victory over the Oilers (16-16).

Santa Margarita 3, San Marcos 0: Spencer Buckley's 19 kills paced the second-seeded Eagles (29-3) to the 25-13, 25-16, 25-15 home victory.

Dana Hills 3, Foothill 0: Bryce Yould led the Dolphins (23-10) with 15 kills in their 25-22, 25-16, 25-19 home victory over the Knights.

The trio of Doug Hamann, Christian Hessenauer and Cory Swartzbaugh all had eight kills apiece.