Ocean View boys’ volleyball closes in on first playoff berth since 2012

Ocean View High’s athletic programs seem to relish being the underdog.

The Seahawks’ boys’ volleyball team is the one doing a lot of barking of late.

Junior outside hitter Jackson Petrovich had a team-high 16 kills, and Ocean View rallied for a 21-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-15 Golden West League win at Santa Ana on Friday.

Third-place Ocean View (8-8-3, 5-2 in league) went up three matches on the Saints (7-11, 2-5) with three remaining. The magic number stands at one for the Seahawks to secure a spot in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs. It would be Ocean View’s first playoff appearance since 2012.

The Seahawks are still in league title contention, too. Ocean View will travel to first-place Loara (15-7, 7-0) next Friday.

“It’s pretty amazing for these guys,” Seahawks coach Joshua Nehls said. “You hear it all the time, ‘We got to go. Our league championship is at risk.’ These are the underdogs saying, ‘Now’s our chance,’ so they’re going for it.”

Ocean View did not get off to an ideal start on Friday. The Saints won the first six points of the match, and they went on to take the first set.

Nehls did not wait around for his guys to figure it out. He said that it was time for his players to make their voices heard, no matter how obnoxious their celebrations became.

“Our coach said, ‘We need to get hyped. We need to really get loud because that’s probably the best way we can get into the game,’” Petrovich said of his team’s response to its slow start. “That’s what we did. We got loud. I saw some of my teammates who I have never really seen scream start screaming. Everyone got into the game, and I think that’s why we won.”

Nehls added that quiet gyms take the fun out of the game. He told his team to “think about quiet places like the library. No one’s having fun … in a library because it’s quiet.”

“If you guys start getting loud like in an amusement park or at a concert, you will feel the energy come,” Nehls said he told his players. “You’ll start playing more aggressively and having a good time out there.”

Junior setter Hunter Miller had 39 assists, 11 kills and three service aces. He had nine kills over the final two sets as the Seahawks closed out the match.

Miller took particular satisfaction from picking up a key victory on the road.

“I think coming into someone else’s house and taking a win is big because it gives us the momentum,” he said. “It makes us want to fight more because we don’t want to lose.

“Taking a win here feels so much better because we came in and we took it from them.”

As noise was the theme of the match, a league victory would seem to have assured that the Seahawks will not be having a long, silent bus ride home.

Junior opposite Kermel Anwell had 11 kills and three aces for Ocean View. Junior outside hitter Devon Vu had six kills, and senior middle blocker Jacob Lizardi added five kills.

“This honestly means a lot,” Petrovich said of being in the playoff hunt. “I’ve never really been on a winning team, and I’ve always had the mentality of, ‘Let’s do this. We got this.’

“I feel like this is the chance. This is it. We can still win league.”

Peter Mendez paced Santa Ana with nine kills. Juan Correa had seven kills and two aces, Jose Maciel had five kills and 2½ blocks, and Eduardo Rodriguez handed out 21 assists.

andrew.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner