CYPRESS — Esperanza boys volleyball coach Jordyn Griggs emphasized to her players that they had the ability to surprise some teams in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs.
On Friday night, the Aztecs did just that.
They defeated fourth-seeded Cypress in five sets, 25-21, 20-25, 13-25, 25-20, 15-11, to advance to the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Senior outside hitter Will Preston led the attack with a team-high 14 kills, while fellow senior Tyler Lemmon added nine kills and junior libero Andrew Vasquez finished with 12 digs.
Esperanza (18-11) will face the winner of Monday’s second-round match between Rancho Verde of Moreno Valley and Wiseburn Da Vinci of El Segundo.
Griggs said her team’s fire and tenacity were key factors in the victory.
“I think a lot of people are not really looking out for us as much as they should be,” Griggs said. “So I’m really excited to come in and challenge some of these teams that, you know, think they’ve got it over us.”
The Aztecs took the opening set as Cypress (8-7) mistimed some swings and had a bit of miscommunication during some moments.
The Centurions settled down and responded by taking the next two sets.
Esperanza fought back to force a fifth set and quickly went up 5-1, forcing Cypress to call time out.
The Centurions fell behind 12-4 before going on a 6-0 run thanks to their sophomore outside hitters Yanal Alliftawi and Nathan Chaidez.
Alliftawi finished with a match-high 18 kills and Chaidez finished with 11 kills.
Griggs was able to help her senior-laden team regroup and hold off the rally from Cypress.
“I’ve got 10 seniors,” she said, “so, I mean, I’ve got a lot of heart on this team. These boys don’t want to finish here, they didn’t wanna finish in league, they wanna keep going. So I just had to remind them we’re playing a high-level team, and just because the score looks a certain way doesn’t mean they’re not gonna give us just as much heat back as we’re giving them.”
Cypress assistant coach Chris Collins took over head coaching duties Friday for Alex Griffiths, who attended a funeral earlier in the day.
Collins said the loss was an example of the team’s strengths weaknesses this season.
“We compete really high, like we did in that fourth set,” Collins said, “but then we can also just drop really, really low, like we did in the beginning of that fifth. And so, I think for us all year, it’s been a matter of just trying to find consistency, find a steady ground and this was kind of symbolic of the entire year.”
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