The State of Boys Volleyball in California
The CIF State Federated Council, the CIF State’s legislative body, unanimously approved a proposal on April 5 to hold Boys Volleyball State Championships beginning with the 2024-25 school year. CIF State currently administers only regional championships in the sport.
The state championships in their first year will look similar to the girls’ tournament, with regional matches at home sites and the state finals, pitting North versus South, at a neutral site. There will remain four divisions, with no Open division as yet.
“When you look at boys volleyball in the state of California, it’s the best volleyball in the country,” observed CIF State Executive Director Ron Nocetti. “It’s time that we had a state championship.”
Cubs, Oilers take off!
Loyola went east and Huntington Beach west the past couple of weeks. Both teams, ranked among the top 10 in the state and the nation, flew home with tournament titles.
Loyola, which ascended to No. 1 in the state in the last rankings, proved its bona fides by winning the Brophy Invitational Tournament last weekend in Phoenix. The Cubs (25-1 after yesterday’s sweep of Alemany) defeated national top 10 O’Connor twice in the double-elimination tournament. Loyola did not get to play fellow Jesuit school Brophy College Prep, a top 15 team nationally. Brophy is 27-3-2 on the year, with all three losses coming at the hands of O’Connor.
Loyola’s Sean Kelly, a 6-7 senior OH, was named the tournament’s Outstanding Player. Two other Cubs, senior setter Parker Schloss and freshman libero Johnny Gosser, made the All-Tournament team.
Huntington Beach went 4-0 to win the Clash of the Titans two weekends ago in Honolulu. The Oilers went 3-0 in pool play before sweeping host Punahou in the championship match. Punahou is Hawaii’s top team and has lost only to Huntington Beach and Mira Costa this year.
Top performers for the Oilers, who did not drop a set all tournament long, included senior setter Jake Pazanti, senior RS Aidan Dubno, and junior middle blocker Nick Ganier.
The good fight
We wrote a lot about 6-4 senior pin hitter Josiah Reif of Ripon Christian last year when the Knights were going 25-6 and winning the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. 4 title.
Today, we bring different news about Reif, a freshman at Michigan’s Cornerstone University.
He was diagnosed with cancer 1-2 weeks ago.
In an Instagram post yesterday, Reif’s mother shared that Josiah has had three chemotherapy treatments so far and that the mass in his chest is shrinking every day, as doctors had hoped.
Reif has been hitting .343 and averaging almost two kills per set in limited action for Cornerstone.
Our thoughts and best wishes are with Josiah today and throughout this challenge he faces.
New to the top 25 this week
The latest state and region rankings were released yesterday and can be found here: https://www.cifstate.org/sports/boys_volleyball/notebook/list
Two teams north of Santa Barbara made the top 25 this week at the expense of two teams south of it. The new entrants are Valley Christian of San Jose and Clovis.
Valley Christian returned to the top 25 after the Warriors defeated ranked teams Clovis East, Santa Cruz, and Mater Dei to claim the Justin Ebner Memorial hosted by Bellarmine College Prep. Sophomore transfer Elan Taylor had the clinching kill in the championship match win over Mater Dei, 15-13 in the third.
Clovis’ current 14-match winning streak includes wins over Clovis East and, yesterday, a 32-30, 25-22, 25-27, 25-23 decision over Central Region No. 12 Buchanan. Trey Alexander, a 5-11 freshman outside hitter; is leading the Cougars (19-3) in kills.
Servite and Sage Creek fell from the top 25. Servite’s brutal schedule has left the Friars just one game above .500. Sage Creek, which beat state No. 4 Torrey Pines in tournament play on March 23, fell out because its spot was needed for Clovis. The Bobcats are a good bet to return to the top 25 in the next rankings.
Almost that time
We are a little over two weeks from the start of the section playoffs across the state. Here’s the schedule:
Sac-Joaquin Section – First playoff May 2, finals May 11
North Coast Section – First playoff April 30, finals May 9
Central Coast Section – First playoff May 6, finals May 11
San Francisco Section – First playoff May 6, finals May 10
Oakland Section – Only five teams play boys volleyball; will come down to Oakland and Oakland Tech for the section title
Central Section – First playoff April 30, finals May 9
Southern Section – First playoff April 25, finals May 11
Los Angeles Section – First playoff April 29, finals May 9-11
San Diego – First playoff April 30, finals May 9-11
In action yesterday from the top 25…
Fifteen teams in the state top 25 were in action yesterday, highlighted by a clash between state No. 5 Newport Harbor and No. 6 Huntington Beach. Newport, which was No. 1 nationally in the latest AVCA/USA Today rankings, won the first two sets, but could not hold off the Oilers, who rallied to win the next two, then prevailed in the fifth by an 18-16 score.
Huntington made a radical move after losing the first two sets at home on Senior Night. The Oilers moved freshman middle Logan Hutnick to the left side for the first time all year and he thrived. He ended the fifth set with two stuff blocks and a kill to lead HB back from a 16-15 deficit to win. The Oilers fought off five Newport match points.
Nick Ganier had a big match in the middle for the victors, with 14 kills against just one error. Jake Pazanti, one of just three seniors on the team, finished with 50 assists, 16 digs, five kills, and three blocks. Huntington Beach got a boost when another senior, Bennet Tchaikovsky, returned to the court for the first time since having meniscus surgery following a knee injury at Best of the West early in the season.
In another top-10 showdown, No. 8 San Clemente defeated No. 9 Tesoro in four sets. The Tritons are now 3-0 this year against their South Coast League rivals.
Another match of note saw No. 12 Valley Christian avenge an earlier loss by sweeping Saint Francis of Mountain View. Elan Taylor, the sophomore transfer mentioned above, had a major impact in the match and is a difference-maker for the Warriors.
Loyola, Mater Dei, Clovis, Clovis East, Long Beach Wilson, and San Marcos of Santa Barbara all won.
Results for Cathedral Catholic, which played St. Augustine; and Redondo Union, which played Kamehameha of Honolulu; were unknown as of press time.
No. 25 Fountain Valley was swept by Los Alamitos. Los Al is 12-15 on the year but, like Servite, is a talented squad playing a challenging schedule.
News & Notes
Santa Margarita Catholic won a thriller on Tuesday night over Orange Lutheran, dropping the first two sets before rallying to win in five. It was senior night for OLu and the Lancers came out with great energy. Santa Margarita, No. 20 in the South Region rankings, found its groove starting in the third set and got great work from OH Ethan Saint and libero Blake Herman in the win.
“Everyone in our team contributed greatly to the game and helped me in finding the right combinations,” said head coach Sinan Tanik.
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Woodcreek's Andrew Taylor reached a milestone this week with 2,000 career assists
Woodcreek senior setter Andrew Taylor eclipsed 2,000 assists over his three-year varsity career on Tuesday. He is averaging 8.5 assists per set for a 13-6 team that is 3-4 since losing OH Brian Krupp to an ankle injury.
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Torrey Pines star hitter Christian Connell didn’t touch a volleyball until he was a seventh grader at a family wedding in Mexico. He is now a star hitter for the Falcons and a USC recruit.
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Long Beach Wilson had its 16-match unbeaten streak snapped on Wednesday when undefeated Marist of Chicago knocked off the Bruins in five sets. Wilson had match points in the fourth set but could not capitalize. The Bruins (21-4) have been nearly unbeatable with their entire lineup on the floor, but have played with key players missing all year. Against Marist, the Bruins played with their starting libero home with flu.
Wilson won the Beach Cities Invitational in La Jolla March 22-23, defeating the likes of Upland, St. Margaret’s, and Sage Creek.
Last night, the Bruins hosted Millikan on their Senior Night. After dropping the first set, Wilson won the next three to clinch the Moore League title. Ian Nolte and Will Morrison teamed for 30 kills and Shayne Galura had 35 assists in the win.
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The 16-team Karch Kiraly/Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions starts today. Marist, which plays best of three matches in Illinois, is in the field coming off of its win over Wilson.
“We are excited for the weekend and the challenges it will bring,” said Redhawk coach Jordan Vidovic. “Obviously 3 out of 5 is a new thing for us and seeing different styles of play will test us and we will hopefully learn a lot from. We also want to show we can compete, which we were able to do last night even playing a little sloppy.”
Four state-ranked teams are in the field, headed by Newport Harbor and Mira Costa. Sanger and Del Norte also are playing, as is the host, Santa Barbara. Interestingly, two other strong area schools, San Marcos of Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos (Goleta) are not competing.