Santa Cruz High School's James Bush makes a block against visiting Archbishop Mitty in Thursday's CCS Open Division semifinal. (John Lee – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz High School boys volleyball team performed in front of a raucous home crowd Thursday to make history.
The Cardinals used aggressive serving, great passing and a consistently versatile attack to defeat Archbishop Mitty 25-21, 18-25, 25 in the Central Coast Section Open Division semifinals on Thursday night. -22, defeated 25-22.
With this victory, the first-place Cardinals (38 wins, 1 loss) advanced to the regional finals for the second time in three years. They will play for their first sectional title at noon Saturday at Harker School in San Jose, when they will battle No. 3 Christian (30-10) in the Valley for the crown.
The Warriors, the defending British Open champions, defeated Mountain View's St. Francis 25-22, 25-19, 25-23 in Thursday's semifinals.
Santa Cruz and the rival Warriors have played three times this season, with the Cardinals winning twice. The first contest was a five-set victory for SC on March 27th. In the April 6 tournament, VC won in two sets, and in the April 20 tournament, Santa Cruz came back with a two set victory.
“We played well overall tonight,” Cardinals forward Lucas Kamalani said. “I'm very excited to play Valley Christian in the final this Saturday. It's going to be fun.”
The Cardinals' previous appearance in the finals was in Division II.
“It was a very exciting game,” Santa Cruz setter Maverick Manners said. “We kept the ball alive and made them make mistakes. Lucas did a really good job picking the ball up. We had a wild mentality and everyone was getting the ball.”
Manor moved the ball on offense, with outsider Julian “Juju” Parry recording 16 kills and Gammon Nilsen eight. On the right side, left-handed Tim Pohlman had a big performance with 12 kills. In midfield, Leo Sapnaul and James Bush provided alternatives and kept Mitty off balance.
Zach Flynn had 11 kills for the Monarchs.
“Our serve-receive was unparalleled,” Santa Cruz coach Justin Bates said. “We put serve pressure on them and forced them out of their system. We ran the offense well and Mav (Manner) distributed the ball well. And Lucas really shined tonight with his serve receive.”
In 2022, Santa Cruz lost to Leland in the CCS finals in five sets. That team then lost to Homestead in his NorCal Division III semifinals. This season, the Cardinals are ranked No. 8 in the state by cifstate.org and compete in the highest level, the CCS Open Division. Last year's team competed in the CCS Open Division, but lost to Valley Christian in the quarterfinals.
“I thought we played really good volleyball,” Mitty coach Lacey Guerra said. He is a 2006 Mitty graduate who won two state championships as a starter for the Monarchs girls team. “They're a really good passing team and have a lot of options. It's hard to see what options they're going to take.”
The first set was close until SC's four-point run midway through the set gave the Cardinals a slight edge. Sapnor drilled the ball down the middle, Manor made a perfect dump before blocking Mitty's attack, and Parry belted an overpass for an extra point. The lead grew to 17-12 and Santa Cruz made a comeback.
Mitty came on strong in the second set, and Flynn and Alan Malcolm were also hot. The Monarchs evened the game with a set each.
Manor and Parry both hit two aces in the third set, putting Santa Cruz on top 9-6. The Cardinals defense was digging into everything. Nilsen joined Parry in a fierce outside attack, and Poelman was unstoppable on the right side. Bates set up a rotation to match up Sapnor with Malcolm to slow the push. Santa Cruz built a 24-18 lead and held off a late Mitty flurry. The final point was a Santa Cruz trademark, with Nilsen sprinting all the way to the sideline and Miner giving Parry the win.
The fourth set was close at the beginning. Santa Cruz took over the game at 13-13. Parry had three kills, Sapnor had three from the middle and Nilsen added two from the outside. The winning goal came from Manor's ace, and the bench erupted into wild cheers from the Cardinal crowd.
“We beat them on serve and in the passing game,” Parry said, pointing to the factors that made the difference in the final two sets. “Everyone was very focused tonight.”
Score
Santa Cruz 3, Archbishop Miti 1
25-21, 18-25, 25-22, 25-22
next: CCS Open Division Championship, No. 1 Santa Cruz vs. No. 3 Valley Christian
when: Saturday, noon
where: Harker School, San Jose
