Boys’ volleyball: Newport Harbor wastes no time in advancing to final
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Well, that was quick. It took less than an hour -- about 57 minutes -- for top-seeded Newport Harbor to sweep away Santa Margarita, 25-22, 25-20, 25-16, in the semifinals of the Southern Section-Toyota Division I playoffs.
It’s doubtful anyone could have beaten the Sailors (31-3) tonight, and there was no way that Santa Margarita was going to do it after it fell behind, 7-1, in Game 3. The closest the Eagles (5-33) got was four points, 8-4.
Mark Liebermann’s serves at the end of Game 2 were huge as Newport Harbor went from 19-19 to 23-19. Coach Dan Glenn said the momentum carried over, and that carried the day. Liebermann, a 6-foot-5 outside hitter headed to Santa Barbara, had eight kills and four blocks, and 6-4 middle Max Volz had nine kills.
‘We expected a lot more from them,’ said freshman Cody Caldwell, the 6-3 younger brother of UCLA-bound Kyle Caldwell. ‘We were expecting their opposite [Tyler Jansen] to get more kills.’
Jansen, a 6-5 junior who has already committed to USC, didn’t have the kind of great night he is accustomed to because Newport served so tough and made it hard to set him.
The first game was all Kyle Caldwell, at 6-8 a monster of a setter for Newport Harbor. The stats didn’t look right because Kyle and Cody were both listed with only two kills, and I’d swear Kyle had a lot more.
It was nice the Caldwell boys had a big night in their last home game of the season -- and for Kyle, the last home game of his career -- on the court named after the late George Yardley.
Yardley, the NBA Hall of Famer who attended Newport Harbor, was the Caldwells’ grandfather. Their dad, Bruce Caldwell, won a section title in 1980 when the program was coached by Charlie Brand.
On Saturday at 7 p.m. Cal State Dominguez Hills against second-seeded Mira Costa, the young Caldwells will try to join their dad in the annals of Newport Harbor history.
-- Martin Henderson