El Toro Keys on Stone, Beats Thousand Oaks to Advance in Playoffs

EL TORO —  It’s not often a coach will attack one of the opposing team’s best players. But that’s exactly what El Toro assistant coach Kim Jagd suggested the Chargers do to Thousand Oaks’ Aimee Stone.

And it worked like a charm.

El Toro (18-3) overcame an opening-game loss to the Lancers (18-4) and rallied to win 12-15, 15-5, 15-7, 15-10 and advance to the Southern Section 5A semifinals.

“We were picking up what they did offensively and my wife (assistant coach Kim Jagd) figured out that No. 4 (Stone) had a lot of offensive responsibility,” El Toro head coach Mike Jagd said. “So we served at her hoping making the passes and still hitting would put pressure on her.’

It worked as Stone had trouble handling the serves, forced bad passes, and had trouble with kills as well.

“It really takes me time to adjust to things,” said Stone, who finished the game with 14 kills and five digs. “I’ll hit 20 kills the same way before I adjust. I’ve got to, or should have learned that.”

The Chargers, ranked second in the final section poll, were led by Michelle Mauney, who had 14 kills, 10 blocks, 13 digs and four aces.