Costa with the most-a
Mira Costa won the Karch Kiraly / Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions this past weekend, the third tournament title this season for the Mustangs in as many attempts.
OH Victor Loiola was named MVP. Cooper Keane, Stone Seligson, and Johnny Dykstra earned All-Tournament honors.
The Mustangs handed Marist of Chicago its first loss of the year in the semifinals, 3-1, then defeated Newport Harbor in the finals by the same 3-1 count.
Newport played in Santa Barbara without superstar hitter Riggs Guy, who was ill. The Sailors managed to make the finals by taking down the host school Santa Barbara in the semifinals.
Sophomore pine Henry Clemo, senior setter Grayson Springborn, and senior libero Walker Vaicek made the All-Tournament team for Newport.
Surf’s up!
Going into Wednesday, the standings in the four-team Surf League, where all four teams are ranked among the top seven in the state; looked like this:
Corona del Mar 4-1
Newport Harbor 4-2
Huntington Beach 2-3
Edison 1-4
With Guy back in the lineup, Newport downed Edison in four sets.
Huntington Beach rallied from down two sets to one to defeat CDM, 15-10 in the fifth. Nick Ganier led four Oilers in double figures with 16 kills. Jake Pazanti dished out 53 assists.
Sterling Foley had 22 kills and four aces to lead Corona del Mar, which will be the No. 1 seed for the playoffs despite being co-league champs with Newport. Newport, which has won outright or shared eight straight league titles, will be the No. 2 seed, with Huntington Beach No. 3 despite the win.
Southern Section madness
The CIF Southern Section eight-team Div. 1 bracket will be released on Saturday.
Corona del Mar, Newport, and Huntington Beach are locks from the Surf League, along with Mira Costa and state No. 1 Loyola.
Edison seems likely to make the top eight along with Tesoro and San Marcos of Santa Barbara. The Royals were probably on the outside looking in before their revenge win over Santa Barbara on Tuesday. San Marcos’ only other loss this season came against Costa.
If those are the top eight, that would leave both Mater Dei and Redondo Union in Div. 2 along with the likes of Beckman, Long Beach Wilson, Upland, and Santa Margarita. Mater Dei owns a win over Redondo this year and seemed ticketed for the top eight before losing to Santa Margarita in four sets last night.
All Charged up!
Last Thursday, Dos Pueblos, ranked 25th in the South Region rankings, also upended Santa Barbara, defeating the Dons at home on Dos Pueblos’ Senior Night for the first time in 10 years. Senior RS Micah Goss, a UC Irvine signee, led the way with 12 kills and three blocks in just his fourth match of an injury-plagued season.
Dos Pueblos finished its regular season 18-7, with strong showings at both the Best of the West and Dos Pueblos Invitational. The Chargers could be a sleeper in the Southern Section Div. 2 playoffs with Goss in the lineup.
Doing the splits
Statewide No. 17 Carlsbad upended No. 4 Torrey Pines in four sets on April 12 behind 19 kills and seven blocks from Parker Tomkinson.
Torrey Pines exacted revenge five days later with a home sweep, behind 18 kills and six aces from Christian Connell.
News and notes
Upland senior OH A.J. Contreras recorded career kill No. 1,000 in a sweep of Claremont on April 10
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Arroyo Grande won a tournament title for the first time in many years on Saturday and defeated its fiercest rival in the championship match
Arroyo Grande defeated big rival San Luis Obispo in the championship match of the Fresno Christian Tournament on Saturday.
“It was big for our group,” said coach Tyson Kerr, whose charges captured their first tournament win since 2020.
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Since losing to San Luis Obispo on March 16, Rio Americano has won 14 consecutive matches played to at least two sets. That includes a Tuesday road sweep of tough Pleasant Grove.
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Santiago Sharks fin-ished off a league win
Santiago of Corona locked up a league title for the first time since 2012. The Sharks, who earlier took third in their own Shark Classic, are 16-5 on the year.
“We've had our share of injuries this season,” said coach Courtney Krueger. “Three sprained ankles, and one knee issue. Still battling though!”
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Huntington Park won its first match of the season versus Dorsey but has since lost all of its matches. That hasn’t stopped coach Kimberly Espinoza from getting excited about her team’s successes, like when the Spartans’ 5-7 setter blocked a 6-4 middle from Garfield last week.
“In awe, my whole team went crazy and let out a loud 'whattttttt,' and continued with our blocking cheer,” she said. “One thing I always preach to my kids is 'height does not determine skill,' and this further supported my argument that you do not have to be tall to be a skilled athlete, though it does facilitate things.”
Espinoza said that her team wasn’t very competitive last year, but this year Huntington Park has been able to stand toe-to-toe with teams that trounced it a year ago.
“Personally, the growth that I have seen between last year and this year has been tremendous,” she reflected. “My once newbie players can now hit, dig, and serve as if they have been playing for a long time and this growth has only come about in one year. The emphasis that these kids place on growth outside of our season only makes me enthusiastic about next year's season.”