Taking over a perennial powerhouse Mira Costa girls volleyball program would not be an easy task for anyone, but having only one month to prepare the team for the season has added to the challenge for new Mustang head coach Austin Rester.
When Hayley Lawson-Blanchard resigned in June to take the head coaching job at Harvard-Westlake, Rester applied for the job and received a phone call in late July with news that he had been selected.
Rester played professionally on the AVP tour for seven years, played outside hitter professionally in Bulgaria, Puerto Rico and Argentina, and trained with both the USA Indoor and Beach National teams.
He spent four years coaching varsity at Cathedral Catholic High School, during which time he led both the boy’s sand volleyball team and the boy’s indoor teams to the San Diego championships.
He recently coached Sunshine Volleyball Club’s 17-1s and 14-South Bay teams that reached the US Junior National Championships.
“Mira Costa has such a storied tradition,” Rester said. “It’s been such a whirlwind time for me, the hardest part having such a small window before the season starts. Fortunately, I have quality assistant coaches to help in Lacey Fuller and Ian Satterfield.”
Asd a defensive specialist, Fuller helped Penn State win back-to-back NCAA National Championships. Satterfield, a Mira Costa alumnus, played at Long Beach State after being a two-time All-CIF Division 1 selection and leading Mira Costa to the 2008 CIF title.
With 74 girls trying out for Mira Costa’s program, Rester is keeping an unusually large number of 20 girls on his varsity roster and 16 each on the junior varsity and frosh-soph squads.
“Fitting players into the right spots will take some time,” Rester said. “But we have a lot of talent which is a good problem to have. I expect many kids to have an impact this season.”
Mira Costa opens the regular season against CIF-SS Division adversaries Edison (at home on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.) and at rival Marymount Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 5:45 p.m.
Rester was pleased with his team’s performance at the Queen’s Court Invitational at the American Sports Center in Anaheim August 19-20. The Mustangs finished third in with Marymount in the Elite Division, behind runner-up Great Oaks and champion Vista Murrieta
Mira Costa defeated Vista Murrieta 23-25, 15-4, 15-6 then beat Santiago/Corona and Edison in in pool play. The Mustang advances to beat James Logan, San Clemente and Great Oaks before losing to Vista Murrieta 13-25, 25-19 15-12 in the semifinals.
“It continues to be a learning process for both coaches and players,” Rester said. “We would not had learned as much if we had not lost a match in the Queen’s Court tournament.”
Although Mira Costa lost only four players to graduation from its 2016 Bay League championship team, two of the players – Britt Bommer and Alexa Underwood – were All-CIF Division 1 selections.
Rester believes his team’s strength will be on the right side and the Mustang setters that include juniors Malea Stanton and Rochelle Scott..
“Malea Stanton is as good a setter than anybody in the area,” Rester said. “We’re also moving (junior) Memphis Glasgow from middle blocker to the right side and expect and productive season from her.”
Mira Costa has six libero/defensive specialists led by stalwart senior Kelly Barry. Rester has also been impressed with seniors Lea Ungar, Katherine Huffman and junior Riley Hazelrigg.
Sophomores Talia Genova, Camryn Jones and Kate Reilly will battle junior Sami Underwood for playing time.
Senior Karina Myszkowski will be relied upon as an outside hitter as will 6-foot-6 junior Caroline McQuiggan at the middle blocker position.
Mira Costa is ranked No. 13 in the Cal High Sports preseason poll and, after a home match with Santa Margarita on Tuesday, Sept. 12, will compete in the 23rd edition of the 64-team Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas.
