The Sweetwater High School boys varsity volleyball tournament was last hosted two years ago and has since become the first large tournament in the San Diego Section with 46 teams from all divisions and all areas of the section.
Overall, there were six championship divisions — Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper, Steel and Brass — at the Feb. 25-26 tournament.
San Marcos defeated Otay Ranch 25-22, 25-19 to win the Gold championship while Helix Charter High School earned the Silver Division title with a 25-18, 25-13 win over East County rival Santana.
Morse defeated Santa Fe Christian 20-25, 25-23, 15-6 to win the Bronze championship while Clairemont defeated Fallbrook 25-8, 24-22 to win the Copper championship.
Hilltop defeated Liberty Charter 25-14, 21-25,15-11 to win the Steel championship while High Tech High San Diego defeated Escondido Charter to win the Brass championship.
San Marcos finished 7-0 over the two-day tournament with wins over Castle Park, Hoover, Mira Mesa, Coronado, El Camino and Bishop’s besides the gold medal match victory against the Mustangs.
Otay Ranch finished 6-1 with victories against Mar Vista, Victory Christian Academy, El Cajon Valley, Poway, Del Lago Academy and Mission Vista.
Hilltop finished 4-2 over the two days with wins against Bayfront Charter, Santana, University City, Canyon Hills and Mater Dei Catholic besides Liberty Charter.
The Gold and Silver finals took place at Sweetwater High School in National City. The Bronze finals took place at Montgomery High School while the Copper finals took place at Olympian High School. The Steel finals took place at Southwest High School while the Brass finals took place at Monte Vista High School.
Helix, which finished as the runner-up to Ramona in last spring’s San Diego Section Division II championship game, finished 6-1 over the two-day tournament. The Highlanders swept Escondido (25-21, 25-23), Monte Vista (25-15, 25-12) and O’Farrell Charter (25-17, 25-21) in 2-0 sweeps to start the tournament 3-0 before dropping a 2-1 decision to University City (25-23, 20-25, 9-15).
The Scotties rebounded with consecutive 2-1 wins over Olympian (25-17, 20-25, 15-12) and Coronado (25-22, 23-25, 15-12) to meet Santana in the Silver championship game.
Santana finished 4-3 in the tournament.
The Sultans lost two-games-to-one in its tourney opener against University City (25-14, 23-25, 14-16) before posting consecutive 2-0 sweeps against Hilltop (25-20, 25-22), Bayfront Charter (25-7, 25-14) and Granite Hills (25-18, 25-19). The Santee team lost 2-0 to Madison (19-25, 23-25), then defeated San Dieguito Academy in three games to meet Helix in the Silver championship game.
Liberty Charter finished with wins over Mater Dei Catholic and San Ysidro and losses to Granite Hills and Hilltop.
Section runners-up
Helix finished 10-0 in Grossmont Hills League play during the shortened 2021 spring season, 13-1 overall. The Scotties were undefeated until they met Ramona in the CIF final. The Bulldogs won the school’s first section banner in the sport 3-2 in a five-game matchup.
The Highlanders received the No. 4 seed in the divisional playoffs but upset top-seeded San Marcos in the semifinals to advance against the Bulldogs.
Helix won the first set in the championship final 25-15 but Ramona won the second set 25-16. The Scotties won the third set 25-17 before Ramona broke three ties in the fourth set to win 27-25.
The third-seeded Bulldogs (17-3) won the tiebreaker 15-10.
All-tournament team
San Marcos: Matthew Mecate
San Marcos: Tyler Yraceburn
Otay Ranch: Xavier Wells
Otay Ranch: Justin Ayer
Poway: Niko Williams
Bishop’s: Ryland Birchmeier
