Huntington Beach’s win over Corona del Mar in five-set thriller a likely preview of the boys volleyball playoffs – Orange County Register

NEWPORT BEACH – If Wednesday’s Huntington Beach vs. Corona del Mar match was a preview, and it probably was, the CIF Southern Section Division 1 men’s volleyball playoffs will be exceptional.

Huntington Beach defeated Corona del Mar in five very athletic and entertaining sets, 20-25, 25-15, 19-25, 26-24, 15-10, in the Surf League final for both teams.

Newport Harbor beat Edison in Wednesday’s other Surf League game. Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor are league co-champions with a 4-2 record. Huntington Beach is third at 3-3, Edison fourth at 1-5.

Corona del Mar is 21-6 overall in the postseason. Huntington Beach is 26-5.

Huntington Beach junior middle blocker Nick Ganier had a team-high 16 kills. Senior outside hitter Bennet Tchaikovsky had 14 kills, as did senior opposite hitter Aidan Dubno. Freshman middle blocker Logan Hutnick contributed 12 kills. Senior setter Jake Pazanti had 53 assists.

The Oilers trailed Corona del Mar 17-16 in the fourth set. From there, Huntington Beach outscored the Sea Kings 10-7 to win the set and carried the momentum into the fifth set.

Tchaikovsky has recently returned to action. He missed several matches after tearing a meniscus during last month’s Best of the West tournament in San Diego.

“It’s been tough the last month trying to find a lineup when Bennet wasn’t in the game,” said Pazanti, whose father Craig Pazanti is the team’s coach. “He does so much for us, offensively and defensively. It makes us a better team, makes us more together.

Wednesday’s match was Huntington Beach’s fourth five-set match in the league. They are 2-2 in those games, including a win over Newport Harbor and losses to Corona del Mar and Edison.

“It’s nice to get a win,” Craig Pazanti said. “It brings back a lot of thoughts about maybe one or two (games) that we let slip away earlier…opportunities to win and maybe win the league.”

Corona del Mar senior Sterling Foley, a leading candidate for Orange County Player of the Year, led the Sea Kings with 22 kills. He also had four aces.

In addition to his rocket spikes, Foley also makes tough digs and is a deft passer.

Sea Kings coach Katey Thompson, who would of course prefer her team to win the Surf League championship rather than share it with Newport Harbor, post-match in preparation for the playoffs.

“The good thing is we played almost everyone in that top eight (in Division 1),” she said. “This is going to be a difficult task and the road ahead will be difficult.”

All four Surf League teams appear destined to be in the eight-team Division 1 bracket when the men’s volleyball playoff pairs are released Saturday morning. The eight teams will be divided into two pools, with three pool rounds starting on Wednesday April 24. The winners of Pool A and Pool B will meet in the Division 1 final on May 11 at Cerritos College.

The CIF-SS rankings generally determine the rankings and composition of the brackets. This could be true for identifying the eight teams that will be in Division 1.

The top eight teams in the Division 1 standings this week are, in order: 1. Loyola; 2. Crown of the sea; 3.Mira Costa; 4.Edison; 5. Huntington Beach; 6. Newport Harbor; 7. Mater Dei; 8. Redondo. Tesoro is No. 9 and San Marcos de Santa Barbara is No. 10.