Huntington Beach fights, falls in five sets to Mira Costa in CIF Division 1 final
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Each passing point generated gasps from the stands, those on court digging just a little deeper as the fourth set offered one climatic moment after another.
In its desperation to stay in a match with the nation’s best boys’ volleyball team in Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, Huntington Beach staved off four championship points in an extended set.
When Colin Choi polished off the second of back-to-back kills to claim the marathon game, the Oilers poured onto the court. It hadn’t decided the match, and yet it had been met with the sort of reaction as though it had.
Huntington Beach had waited since the first week of the season to get another look at Mira Costa, and in the rematch the Oilers delivered a heart-and-soul effort to send Friday’s final to a fifth set.
Mira Costa pulled out the decisive set, a late run taking much of the drama out of the conclusion of what had been a riveting back-and-forth affair in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship match at Cerritos College.
Grayson Bradford’s match-best 25th kill ended it, as Mira Costa beat Huntington Beach 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 29-31, 15-11 to give the Mustangs a ninth section title in program history.
Mira Costa won a championship a year after appearing in the final and losing to Los Angeles Loyola.
“It’s not a good feeling to come so close to your goals and not make it,” Mira Costa coach Greg Snyder said. “I think that motivated us, for sure, especially the boys that were on this court last year and didn’t quite get the job done. … They took those lessons, and I think they applied them this year, and it showed, I think, in their maturity on the court, that they were never really rattled.”
Snyder said that he felt “a lot of weight off my back” in winning the CIF title, adding that “a lot of people were expecting” the Mustangs to win as the top seed.
Huntington Beach (34-4), the second seed, was after its sixth CIF title and first since a run of three consecutive championships from 2013 to 2015.
The Oilers won a CIF State Southern California Division II regional championship in 2021. They will now take aim at the inaugural boys’ volleyball state championship, the brackets for which were released on Sunday.
State playoff openers were scheduled for Tuesday, with Huntington Beach’s path beginning with a home match against Redondo Union (27-10).
“We’re going to come back to work and see if we can get another chance at these guys,” said Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti, quickly turning the page to the state playoffs.
Mira Costa (32-2) jumped in front by winning the first and third sets. Huntington Beach had impressive answers to each deficit. Kai Gan stepped up to the service line in a rotation that saw the Oilers rattle off seven straight points to open the second set.
In the fourth set, Huntington Beach received match-extending kills from Ben Arguello, Nick Ganier Jr. and Choi on championship points for the Mustangs.
“The character that this team showed in set four was unbelievable,” Pazanti said. “You know, could have given up several times in that match, and just kept battling, kept battling, kept battling. It was just a great effort, and I just think we ran out of gas.”
During the crucial stretch, Choi was blocked on an initial hitting effort, fell to the floor and then got up in time to rise for a bump set from a teammate and win a point.
“He’s probably our most tenacious player,” Logan Hutnick said of Choi. “He really just sticks through anything, and he never gives up on any point.”
Aiden Atencio, Choi and Hutnick came up big in back-row defensive efforts against a Mira Costa team that had a considerable height advantage. Justin Bulsombut was also credited with contributing to six points on blocks.
“We didn’t want to play Mira Costa’s game,” Pazanti said. “We wanted to play our game. Our game is different than those guys. They can afford to chuck it to the ceiling and go hit it over the block. We got to rely on playing great defense. We got to rely on passing the ball. We got to rely on putting service pressure on people from the service line.”
Hutnick had an up-and-down evening as a hitter — 22 kills and 11 errors — but he handled the lion’s share of opportunities in serve receive, committing just two miscues in 55 chances. The sophomore outside hitter also had a team-best 13 digs to go with 2½ blocks.
Harvard-bound setter Kai Gan had 53 assists. Arguello accumulated 13 kills, Ganier Jr. had a dozen kills, Choi contributed nine kills and 10 digs, and Atencio produced 11 digs.
“We wanted to really have that mindset that ‘we’re the underdogs, and we have nothing to lose,’” Gan said of facing the finalists from a year ago. “Real standpoint, though, obviously, they have huge height, and we knew that we have smaller guys on our team, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t still be effective in the offense.
“I think kind of positioning ourselves into establishing the middle and then also using all of our options, back row and front row, really helped us get to that fifth set.”
Mira Costa put itself on the brink of victory with a 6-1 run to move within a point of the title once more at 14-8. It was academic at that point for the Mustangs, Andrew Chapin (57 assists, 12 digs) connecting with Bradford after the Oilers had fought off three more match points.
“I can set him every single ball of every single game and trust him that we’re going to go out there and win this game,” Chapin said of Bradford. “In crunch time, the fourth set, he had a swing to put it away, and he got dug, and I never ran away from it because I knew that he’s a big-time player and he makes big-time plays.”
Mateo Fuerbringer had 17 kills, three total blocks and two service aces for the Mustangs. Alex Heins had nine kills and nine block assists, Thatcher Fahlbusch also had nine kills, and Wyatt Davis chipped in with six kills and 3½ blocks. Justin Warner had a match-best 14 digs.
Also in the CIF Southern Section boys’ volleyball finals:
Sage Hill 3, Santa Barbara 2: Jackson Cryst had 31 kills, as the Lightning rallied past the host Dons 15-25, 25-14, 18-25, 25-20, 15-8 on Saturday in the Division 4 final.
Sage Hill (19-11) captured a section title for the second straight year. The Lightning earned the first CIF title in program history in winning the Division 5 championship last season.
Ryan Manesh pounded out 11 kills, and Ethan McNutt turned in 19 digs defensively.
Sage Hill, the top seed in the Southern California Division III regional, drew a home match against Fresno Sanger West (26-15) to start the state playoffs.
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