A blast from outside hitter Joaquin Gonzalez pulled Carpinteria even at 15-15 in the first set of the CIF-SS Division 5 boys volleyball final against Sunny Hills.
The top-seeded Warriors, however, couldn’t build on the exciting play.
No. 2 Sunny Hills capitalized on several unforced errors to go on big scoring runs throughout the match and defeated Carpinteria 25-16, 25-16, 25-22 to claim the title at Long Beach City College on Saturday.
Carpinteria was playing in its first CIF boys volleyball final in program history. The Warriors finish as CIF runners-up with a 15-4 record.
After coach Mickey Caughey accepted the runner-up plaque, the team received a standing ovation from the Carpinteria fans who made the long trip to Long Beach.
The Warriors were in a back-and-forth battle with Sunny Hills (23-5) in the first set before things came apart. The Lancers took advantage of mistakes and scored nine straight points to go ahead 24-15. One point came on a serving error, three more on hitting errors and another on a bad service reception.
Sunny Hills played with better ball control and had solid defense.
“Sunny Hills proved to be an incredibly good defensive team,” said Caughey. “In our first set, there were several really long rallies, with both teams seemingly making impossible digs over and over. The ball would just not hit the floor on either side of the net. Unfortunately for us, Sunny Hills won almost all of those long rallies and it took its toll on us.
“We started making unforced errors and our serves didn’t have much on them and were easy to pass. And to make matters worse, we started missing our serves. Sunny Hills was playing better and better and putting a lot of pressure on us.”
The Lancers won most of the long rallies in the match. They converted several digs into kills for Nathaniel Casasola, Zachary Tan and Ryan Mesnik on the outside and Ezra Vlad in the middle.
A couple of kills by Casasola and two service aces from Mesnik sparked a 6-0 run in the second set to give Sunny Hills a 9-3 lead.
Tan crushed a ball to cap a 5-0 run to build the advantage to 15-5.
Carpinteria picked up its game after a 4-0 Sunny Hills run in the third set. Gonzalez put away a kill from the back row, the Warriors blocked an overpass and scored a pair of points on Sunny Hills service error to pull to with one, 12-11.
But Sunny Hills came back after another Carpinteria service error. The Lancers scored on a tip from Ezra and an ace from Payton Yang to pull ahead 15-12.
Gonzalez sided out, but the Warriors followed with a service error. Brandon Park then served an ace for Sunny Hills to make it 17-13.
The Lancers pushed their lead to 24-18 before Carpinteria made a late run behind a couple of kills by Gonzalez.
Sunny Hills called time out and then scored on a tip in the middle by Vlad to end the match.
“Our whole team responded with renewed energy,” said Caughey We got two more points taking us to 22 points and we were in striking distance. Sunny Hills called a time out and came back with a plan. It turned out that the plan was a tip over our block that found its way to the floor. And just like that, the game was over.”
Caughey announced that the CIF Final would be his last match as a volleyball coach. He’s been coaching in the Santa Barbara area for 40 years.
“I’m 79 years old and I think that 40 years of coaching is long enough,” he said. “I also did not want to be coaching when I was 80 years old.
“It’s been quite a run for me and I want to thank all of the players, both boys and girls, that I’ve coached over the years and the schools and administrators that hired me, and all the other coaches I’ve had the opportunity to compete against throughout these years.”
