They Want to End Season on a High Note : Volleyball: Doumerc and VanderWal have led unseeded Huntington Beach to its first appearance in Southern Section 4-A final.

Claude Doumerc begins telling the story, the one in which he nearly lost more than just a volleyball match, when he is interrupted by Jeff VanderWal.

“Man, I almost killed you, Claude,” VanderWal said.

Both Huntington Beach High middle blockers burst out in laughter, a somewhat morbid thought considering the circumstances.

“The low point of my career?” Doumerc asks. “It had to be the practice before the San Marcos match last year.”

Doumerc and VanderWal played on the Oilers’ varsity last season, VanderWal was a starter and Doumerc a reserve. It was spring break, but the players were practicing anyway, preparing for the nonleague match against San Marcos.

Doumerc awoke that morning, ate a light breakfast and took his dosage of insulin. He has suffered from low blood sugar since 1986, and takes medication twice daily.

But on this day, Doumerc took too much. He felt fine, though, and left for practice.

VanderWal noticed something wasn’t right with Doumerc.

Practice wasn’t going well. Doumerc shanked passes, blew blocks and his kill attempts wandered like a knuckleball. He seemed confused and disoriented.

“No one knew what was wrong with him,” VanderWal said. “A lot of the guys on the team were getting mad at him because we thought he was goofing off all the time.”

After practice, VanderWal gave Doumerc a ride home, dropping him off at the front gate of his parents’ housing community.

Doumerc felt dizzy as he began walking home. He was having a reaction to the medication. He needed sugar. He headed straight for the refrigerator.

“I was trying to find soda, sugar, anything I could,” Doumerc said.

He collapsed while opening the refrigerator door. He fell and hit his head on the oven door. He lay there, unconscious in a pool of blood, until his mother found him.

Doumerc spent the next three days in the hospital, two of them unconscious. He was back in school a week later.

“It was pretty scary,” Doumerc said. “I think I just took too much medication that day. I didn’t eat much that morning, and then we had a hard practice on top of it. I think that screwed me up.”

It has been more than a year since the incident. Doumerc and VanderWal take a few jabs at each other when reminded about it.

“You should have driven me all the way home,” Doumerc said.

“You should have told us what was going on,” VanderWal said.

After a somewhat unpredictable and disappointing junior season, Doumerc and VanderWal are enjoying a senior season full of rewards.

They have led the unseeded Oilers (20-2) to their first appearance in the Southern Section 4-A final, where they will play unseeded Santa Barbara (18-2) at 7:30 tonight at Cerritos College.

“Even if we lose,” VanderWal said. “We have nothing to hang our heads about because we had a great season. But I would be (upset) if we lost, because we want to win the whole thing.”

VanderWal, a 6-foot-6 middle blocker, has signed to play at UC Santa Barbara next season. He was an all-Sunset League selection in basketball and was the league’s MVP in volleyball.

Doumerc, a 6-5 middle blocker, will likely walk on at either Cal State Long Beach or USC.

Both players have been outstanding in the playoffs, leading the Oilers to consecutive five-game victories over Irvine, Los Angeles Loyola and Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.

“We own the fifth game,” Doumerc said. “It’s all conditioning. We’ve been running bleachers and hitting the weights hard all season.”

The Oilers began the season slowly. They had lost Matt Taylor, last season’s county player of the year, to graduation. VanderWal and Troy Wooton were the only returning players with significant experience. They lost in the first round of the county championships, a tournament they had won the two previous years.

After a nonleague loss to top-ranked Newport Harbor, the Oilers went undefeated through league play, stumbling only in a three-game, nonleague loss to Laguna Beach.

Then came the playoffs.

Huntington Beach has had as much talent in the past few years as any school in the county, yet the Oilers had never advanced past the second round. They were seeded second last season, but were upset in the second round by Irvine.

“I’m happy that we finally got Coach (Rocky) Ciarelli in the finals,” VanderWal said. “It’s about time a team gave him a section championship.”

Beating Irvine was the first big step on the way to the finals. The Vaqueros had one of the county’s best teams and were favored over the Oilers.

“Right before the Irvine match, I let it slip that this might be our last practice,” VanderWal said. “Everyone got mad at me for saying that.”

The Oilers also got in the last word on Loyola. Huntington Beach’s prom dance was scheduled the night of the the quarterfinal match. Ciarelli asked Loyola officials if they could play the match two hours early, so the players could go to the dance.

Loyola officials said no.

That enraged Huntington Beach players, parents and coaches.

After the match, which lasted nearly three hours, the Huntington Beach players hoisted a sign in front of the Loyola team. It read: “You ruined our prom; we ended your season.”

“I was upset about it,” VanderWal said. “I think it was just a plan to make us mad. But it backfired.”

Doumerc and VanderWal are among the seven Oiler players who had their $65 prom tickets refunded. VanderWal and his date made it to the dance five minutes before it ended. Doumerc and his date were 15 minutes late.

“At least we got our pictures taken and got some food,” Doumerc said. “But I still had all my dance moves ready.”