HUNTINGTON BEACH — The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team gained momentum in the middle of the first set against Newport Harbor in an opening-round, pool-play match in the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs on Wednesday.
The Oilers, the No. 2 seed, kept it up through the second set, faltered a bit in the third and then took control back in the fourth, defeating the No. 6 Sailors, 25-14, 25-19, 20-25, 25-20, at Huntington Beach High School.
Huntington Beach (34-3), one of three Sunset League teams in the Division 1 bracket, will host Redondo on Tuesday, May 6. The Seahawks defeated No. 3 Loyola on Wednesday in three sets.
Newport Harbor (13-17) will take on the Cubs on Wednesday at Loyola.
“They’ve been hot as of late,” Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti said of the Sailors. “So, coming in I think we got off to a really good start. I don’t think we could do anything wrong in that first set. And then the second set kind of carried over. We took a lead at around 12-12 and kind of sustained it. And then they came out on fire in the third.
“That’s the thing: You can never stop playing. Anyone can come back at any time. All eight teams in Division 1 are great. So, credit to them that they didn’t give up after being down 2-0 and they came out and won that third set.”
The Oilers defeated the Sailors in their two Sunset League matches by scores of 3-1.
Huntington Beach got almost an equal number of points from its outside and opposite side hitters and from the middle hitter.
Logan Hutnick and Colin Choi had 17 kills and 14 kills, respectively, for the Oilers, mostly from the outside and Ben Arguello scored most of his 15 kills from the middle.
J.P. Wardy and Henry Koch had 11 kills each for the Sailors.
“We truly came out and wanted to win,” Hutnick said. “And they didn’t give up either, you know. They came back. They definitely put up a fight winning that third set, but I’m really happy with how we did today.”
The Oilers were leading 9-8 in the first set and then went on a 16-6 run to pull away and win the set.
Newport Harbor tried to keep it close in the second set and led 15-14 when the Oilers went on an 11-4 run to take a 2-0 lead.
The Sailors built a 10-4 lead in the third set and never looked back.
“We didn’t play very well,” Pazanti told his team after the third said. “We stopped passing the ball and that’s going to take us out of what we’re trying to do offensively. So, I said, let that one go. The cool part about volleyball is it’s 0-0 to start the fourth set. So, let’s just start over just like it’s the beginning of the match and let’s take it from here.
“Even though we’re pretty young, it’s a pretty experienced group as far as varsity experience and playing at a pretty high level. So, I’ve got faith in these guys. So hopefully we can just sustain a little run here.”
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