Sailors handle Tesoro

LAS FLORES — You’ve heard of the elephant in the room? Newport Harbor High senior Kyle Caldwell strikes a similar figure on the volleyball court, where the 6-foot-8 setter can be an imposing presence whether he’s two inches from the net, or 31 feet from the nearest defender behind the service line.

“He’s big-time,” Sailors boys’ coach Dan Glenn said of his UCLA-bound weapon, who helped the Tars defeat host Tesoro, 25-20, 25-16, 25-23, in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs Tuesday.

Caldwell collected 28 assists, four kills, five aces and five digs to help the top-seeded Sailors (29-3) win their 19th straight match.

The victory propelled Newport Harbor into Friday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal, against San Clemente (20-4), which swept host Long Beach Wilson, 25-18, 25-20, 25-22 in the second round. The site of Friday’s match will be determined by coin flip.

Caldwell’s jump serves proved problematic for Tesoro passers, as were his fast-paced dumps — hitting the ball over after the first pass from a teammate, instead of setting the ball for a hitter — and his occasional kill blasts that came after he initiated, then completed, the bump-set-spike sequence with a dig.

“It’s nice to get a set every once in a while,” Caldwell said. “It reminds me of the old days [as an outside hitter].”

Caldwell’s potent arm swing allowed him to pump diving jump serves at reluctant Titans. The result was either little to no contact at all, or an errant pass that allowed the Sailors to maintain control of a team that had shown a penchant for not being controlled.

The Titans (19-7) were thoroughly bested in the serving game, as Newport Harbor’s Max Volz, a senior middle blocker, and Tucker Peleuses, a senior opposite, had two and one ace, respectively.

Meanwhile, Tesoro, which rallied from a two-game deficit for a first-round upset at Harvard-Westlake, and had taken five of its previous six matches to five games, made a dozen serving errors, some at critical times, to help douse its bid to ignite any sustained momentum.

“I thought we did a good job serving,” said Glenn, whose assessment was echoed by Caldwell.

“This was one of our better serving matches,” Caldwell said. “We’re pretty aggressive with our serves, so we’re usually hot or cold.”

The Sailors kept bringing the heat, winning a seesaw opening game, controlling the second, then prevailing in another nip-and-tuck third game to keep their section title hopes alive.

“We advanced,” said Glenn, who received 10 kills from 6-5 senior outside hitter Mark Liebermann, who is bound for UC Santa Barbara, and eight kills from USC-bound Peleuses. “It doesn’t have to be pretty.”

Peleuses and Volz each had a team-high three blocks, while junior outside hitter JB Green led the winners with nine kills.

“After Game 2, we talked about the fact that [Tesoro] had been taking teams to five games,” Glenn said. “I thought our guys did a good job of siding out in that third game, to help snuff out their momentum.”

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].