Montgomery High School will host all five of this weekend’s San Diego Section boys volleyball championship games at its new state-of-the-art double-decker gymnasium.
The gym, which sets the standard for the rest of the Sweetwater Union High School District campuses, is just over a year old. Fans from all over San Diego County will be cheering on their favorite teams in Aztec territory.
Though Montgomery will not be able to showcase its program in the CIF finals after dropping a five-set Division II opening-round playoff match to visiting Bonita Vista on May 11, two teams will represent the Metro Conference in this weekend’s championship games.
Top-seeded Castle Park (12-5) will test second-seeded San Dieguito Academy (19-12) in Friday’s Division III tilt while eighth-seeded Bonita Vista (17-10) will collide with third-seeded El Camino (18-15) in Saturday’s Division II championship game.
High achievers
Castle Park won last year’s Division IV championship title and has continued to excel on the court despite the move up to the more competitive Division III tier.
SDA advanced to last year’s Division III quarterfinals before being eliminated by eventual division champion Helix.
The Trojans won the opening two games in Tuesday’s semifinal match-up against fourth-seeded El Capitan by 25-19, 25-16 scores before the visiting Vaqueros (19-7) came on strong in the final two games. El Capitan won the third game 25-20 and host Castle Park had to dig deep to capture the contest with a 26-24 win in the fourth game behind the strong play of Anthony Navarro.
Bonita Vista posted “5’s” throughout the tournament to get to the CIF finals.
After rallying from a 2-0 deficit to defeat South Bay League champion Montgomery in five games, Bonita Vista advanced to play top-seeded Granite Hills in the division quarterfinals. The Barons won another thrilling five-game win to advance to Tuesday’s semifinals at fourth-seeded Hilltop, which had defeated 12th-seeded Ramona in five games in the preceding quarterfinals.
Bonita Vista captured the opening two games of Tuesday’s high impact semifinal match by scores of 25-21, 26-24 before the host Lancers rallied with wins in Game 3 (25-21) and Game 4 (27-25) to force a deciding Game 5. Metro-Pacific League champion Hilltop (23-9) then inched within two points of winning the fifth game with a 13-9 lead before the Barons rallied to post an emotion-filled 15-13 win.
“We got tired, we had been playing hard and our energy stopped,” BVHS coach Anthony Harrington said. “There was a play in the fifth game that turned it around for us. They had 13 points and our player hit the ball into their block but the Hilltop blocker hit the net. That was the turning point.”
The Barons return to the finals after placing runner-up in 2014. “We’re back again,” Harrington said.
The team also has some unfinished business to which to attend. Bonita Vista received the No. 1 seed in the Division III playoffs in 2014 and appeared on the verge of claiming a CIF title before falling three games to one to a young Santana team in the championship round. Dylan Decker is the lone Baron remaining from that team.
“He (Decker) really wants this one,” Harrington said.
Decker recorded the game-winning kill in the 15-13 mini-game as Bonita Vista reeled off six unanswered points while sitting on the verge of elimination.
It looked like the Barons might record their first sweep in the playoffs after winning the opening two games on Wednesday. Bonita Vista won the first game by four points and then put the Lancers in a 0-2 hole with a nail-biting two-point win. But Hilltop looked like it had all the answers in winning the next two games.
The Lancers powered to a 10-5 lead in Game 3 before two kills by Decker narrowed the Hilltop lead to 23-21. But the hosts regained their composure and, behind a vocal cheering section, started to gain some genuine momentum to deny the visitors a sweep.
The Lancers started off Game 4 with a 3-1 lead, were tied briefly at 4-4 before building four-point leads on three separate occasions. However, the Barons would fight back in the late stages to tie the game four times — 22-22, 23-23, 24-24 and 25-25 — before the hosts finally put away their longtime rival with the final two points.
Hilltop had the home crowd roaring with expectation throughout the majority of Game 5 after breaking an early 4-4 standoff to steadily build what appeared to be a comfortable cushion. The Lancers led by scores of 10-7, 11-8 and 13-9 before the momentum suddenly shifted.
While Bonita Vista had only managed to get close when threatened with defeat in the previous two games, the Barons were finally able to get that key point after tying the match to assume the lead.
Up 14-13, the visitors did not abandon their game but put it into deadly play. The fans on both sides of the gym were emotionally stirred at this point, as were the players on both teams, and administrators initially delayed the ceremonial handshakes to allow emotions on both sides to cool.
The Barons glowed in the ecstasy of victory outside the gym as Hilltop’s players and fans dealt with what seemed like unlikely defeat inside the gym.
Harrington said his team did not ride the momentum of the upset win over No. 1 Granite Hills into Wednesday’s semifinal match.
“I would say that we necessarily didn’t think it was an upset,” the BVHS coach explained. “I knew our team was good enough to win. We had some things happen during the season that got us the No. 8 seed but we felt were better than our record indicated.”
Moli Fa’alogo led BV with 12 kills while Decker had 11 kills, Dakota Segina had 47 assists and Jesus Cruz had 16 digs. David Estrada added five blocks.
Key players for Hilltop included seniors Luis Hernandez and Ryan Wessel and junior Alex Welch.
A third Metro Conference team advanced to this year’s division semifinals.
Metro-Mesa League champion Eastlake advanced to meet second-seeded Cathedral Catholic in Wednesday’s Open Division semifinals after recording a stunning 3-0 upset sweep at third-seeded Torrey Pines in the quarterfinals on the strength of the play of UC Irvine-commit Patrick Sohacki.
However, the Dons (23-9) swept Eastlake (22-9) in three games on Wednesday, winning 25-23, 25-20, 25-20.
The Titans had defeated Cathedral Catholic twice during regular season play.
In the quarterfinals, Eastlake defeated Torrey Pines 25-17, 25-23, 25-17 while Hilltop defeated Ramona 25-20, 15-25, 25-21, 25-27, 15-13.
In Wednesday’s Division II semifinals, El Camino upset second-seeded University City (23-4) in a three-game sweep 25-15, 25-20, 25-16
In Tuesday’s Division III semifinals, San Dieguito Academy eliminated sixth-seeded Mira Mesa (13-11) by scores of 25-22, 25-17, 25-11.
San Diego Section Boys Volleyball Finals
Montgomery High School
Friday, May 20
Division IV: (1) Pacific Ridge (21-2) vs. (2) Sage Creek (19-12-2), 5 p.m.
Result: Sage Creek defeated Pacific Ridge 24-26, 25-21, 25-23, 27-25
Division III: (1) Castle Park (12-5) vs. (2) San Dieguito Academy (19-12), 7 p.m.
Result: San Dieguito Academy defeated Castle Park 27-25, 30-28, 25-20
Saturday, May 21
Division II: (3) El Camino (18-15) vs. (8) Bonita Vista (17-10), 1 p.m.
Rersult: El Camino defeated Bonita Vista 21-25, 25-18, 25-20, 21-25, 15-8@font-face { font-family: “?? ??”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria Math”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { }
Division I: (3) Mt. Carmel (20-15) vs. (8) Del Norte (16-16), 3 p.m.
Result: Mt. Carmel defeated Del Norte 25-10, 17-25, 25-21, 29-27@font-face { font-family: “?? ??”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria Math”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { }
Open Division: (1) Carlsbad (26-7) vs. (2) Cathedral Catholic (23-9), 5 p.m.
Result: Carlsbad defeated Cathedral Catholic 25-23, 25-20, 25-20@font-face { font-family: “?? ??”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria Math”; }@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; }.MsoChpDefault { font-family: Cambria; }div.WordSection1 { }
