The San Diego Mesa Olympians men’s volleyball team earned their biggest win of the season in a 3-1 home victory over the Moorpark Raiders on Feb. 14.
The Olympians improved their win streak to begin the season to six matches with their 3-1 win over Moorpark in the opener of a double-header that concluded with a 3-2 win over Santa Barbara.
“I thought we played well. A little hiccups in serving but I thought eventually, our service went well and we were able to run our middles inside out,” sophomore Trevor Clark said.
Moorpark beat the previously-unbeaten Irvine Valley the week prior and their only loss before the Friday matchup with the Olympians came against the undefeated Golden West Rustlers.
“We’re a big team so defense, transition, attacking, we want to be good in certain scenes. We can run our middles,” head coach David Proffitt said. “We worked a lot this week on running our middles so that was a big deal for us.”
Clark played a big role in the attack where he led the team with 20 kills on 39 attempts. His .430 hitting percentage through the first six matches this season ranked first in the Pacific Coast Conference.
San Diego Mesa looked dominant in the first two sets that finished with 25-18 and 25-15 wins for the home team.
“I think the serving was pretty good. When we serve tough and we make them, we’re really hard to beat because we’re a big team. We’ve got size, good offense,” Proffitt said.
The Olympians led 16-13 in the third set but Moorpark stormed back to tie it 16-16 and took an 18-17 lead in an eventual 31-29 Raiders win.
A few missed serves late in the set put an end to the Olympians’ streak of 13 consecutive sets won.
The Olympians got off to a 5-0 start in the fourth set and led by as many as eight points. There were again missed serves as a collective late in the fourth set but the big lead was enough for a 25-21 win to clinch the match.
Sophomore Julian Montes led the team with four service aces and Clark finished with three.
Montes finished with nine kills, Brandon Underwood recorded eight kills and Ethan Hornyak had seven. Captain Logan Shepherd had 44 assists.
With wins in each of their first six matches, San Diego Mesa’s next matchup puts them on the road against the El Camino Warriors on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. in Alondra Park, Calif.
