by Mark McDermott
In a clash of archrivals who also happened to be the two top ranked boys volleyball teams in the nation, top-ranked Mira Costa just couldn’t get over the hump. The Mustangs lost in straight sets to the Loyola Cubs in a match that was closer – and for Mira Costa, more frustrating – than its results suggested.
Loyola defeated Mira Costa 25-21, 25-22, 25-21 on its way to its 13th CIF Southern Section title, its first since 2016. The victory brought the Cubs to 29-1-1 for the year.
The Cub’s star outside hitter, Sean Kelly, showed why he is widely considered the best high school volleyball player in the country with a dominating performance at the service line and stunningly athletic kills throughout the match. Beginning in the first set with a key three-point serving sequence that included an emphatic ace that put his team ahead 11-8 in the first set, Kelly willed his team to victory in key moments.
Kelly, who is from Manhattan Beach, acknowledged afterwards that this victory meant something more than the CIF title.
“Those Costa dudes have been our best friends for a long time so I love all those dudes,” Kelly told the Daily Breeze. “On the court, it’s a different deal…We’re competing trying to win so there’s a little extra whenever we beat them.”
Mira Costa led at times during every set and rarely trailed by more than a few points, but was plagued throughout by uncharacteristic serving and hitting errors. MCHC Coach Greg Snyder said it was the wrong match for the team not to play its best ball.
“It wasn’t Costa volleyball,” Snyder said.
Snyder is in his first year as head coach of the Mustangs but has been in the program for 13 years, previously as an assistant. He’s witnessed this group of players come together and achieve the most success they’ve had in recent years in part because of their mental toughness. Serving had been a growing strength for this team, the coach said, so both the errors and lack of force at the service line were not in keeping with the level of excellence represented by the Mustang’s 35 win season.
“I feel like we’ve really progressed, especially from our serving standpoint, in terms of pressure from the service line,” Snyder said. “We kind of had a similar issue when we played Loyola the first time. I feel like we did a really good job in terms of slowing Sean Kelly down, but we also made way too many mistakes. And we weren’t serving tough, so it kind of compounded – we were serving easy balls, and serving a lot of them out. I don’t mind missing if you are getting them out of system with tough serving, but when you miss a lot and serve easy, that’s a big problem, especially against a decent team, and Loyola is much better than a decent team. So I feel we kind of helped them win, in a way, and that is unfortunate in a key match.”
Though Snyder was reluctant to make excuses, the program’s strength was perhaps part of its undoing. The Mustangs were missing one of their best players, outside hitter Cooper Keane, who was on a plane to Puerto Rico at the same time of the match to join Team USA in the NORCECA U19 volleyball championships. Keane is 6 foot 6, the same size as Kelly.
“We’ve been playing without him for a good amount of the season,” Snyder said. “But having a guy as large as he is, probably our best option is stopping Sean and just such an offensive threat – I think he could have definitely made up a few points in each of those sets and that possibly gets us a set, and then at some point maybe we turn the match around. I think that’s a possibility. We’ll just never know.”
Costa also lost a core player from last year, Tread Rosenthal, who graduated a year early to begin his collegiate volleyball career at the University of Hawaii. Then, at the end of the third set, outside hitter Victor Loiola went down with a knee injury.
Snyder said that having all those players for a CIF championship game would have been ideal but that sports is about handling adversity.
“They’d be nice to have, but that wasn’t the case,” he said. “We are a deep and talented program, so we did the best with what we had. We have good enough players to pull that match out. We just didn’t play our brand of volleyball.”
By the end of the match, Costa found itself playing two freshmen, Mateo Fuerbringer and Teddy Mendelbaum. Snyder said it is a testament to just how talented this team is and how bright its future is that a pair of freshmen became key contributors.
“The future is very strong,” he said. “Mateo has been a staple in our lineup since day one. Teddy is just a physical powerhouse. He jumps out of the gym, and he’s strong.”
Junior midblocker Alex Heins battled Kelly fiercely at the net, scoring 14 kills for the Mustangs and keeping them in the match at several key points. Loiola, who has been MVP in tournament victories this year and is committed to Long Beach State next year, had 13 kills.
Kelly, who is committed to UCLA next year, had 15 kills for Loyola. But his statline wasn’t indicative of his sway in the game.
“It’s his presence,” Snyder said. “He’s one of the best talents I’ve seen. There are a lot of good players that come through here, but I think Sean’s combination of athleticism and maturity and the ability to lead a team is kind of unmatched. I can’t remember a better combination of all those things since I’ve been witnessing, coaching and watching and appreciating all these players. UCLA is lucky to get him.”
“He just has that presence on the court, where their team feels comfortable,” he said. “I mean, he’s got a big backpack and puts everyone in it.”
The season was not done for Costa. On Tuesday night, at a home match that opened the CIF regionals of the state tournament, the Mustangs defeated Cathedral Catholic, the San Diego Section CIF Open Division champion. They did so despite playing without Loiola, who is still recovering from his knee injury.
“We usually respond when things go not our way,” Snyder said. “I still think we are capable of beating the team we have in front of us any given night. We’re deep. We have players that can play.”
Mira Costa plays Torey Pines in another home match in Round 2 of the CIF Division I SoCal championships Thursday night at 6 p.m. ER
