Huntington Beach threw a monkey wrench into the much anticipated rematch between Mira Costa and Loyola for the Division 1 CIF Southern Section boys volleyball championship, upsetting the top-seeded Mustangs Wednesday.
Mira Costa (32-3) suffered its first sweep of the season at the hands of host Huntington Beach 25-23, 29-27, 25-23 before an enthusiastic crowd.
The loss snapped a 20-match winning streak for Mira Costa, which has an outside chance of gaining a berth in the CIF Southern California Regionals that begin Tuesday. Pairings for the Regionals will be announced Sunday at cifstate.org.
“We are obviously disappointed by our loss in the semifinals, but we also can view our season’s work as a success overall,” Mira Costa coach Mike Ninnis said. “We won a couple of tournaments, went undefeated in league play, and enjoyed a number of memorable wins. It is just unfortunate that we had to end our season on the wrong end of a competitive, hard fought match on the road.”
Second-seeded Loyola reached the finals for the second consecutive season after defeating No. 3 San Clemente in a thrilling 30-28, 22-25, 28-26 35-33 match.
Mira Costa led Huntington Beach 19-13 in the first set but could not secure the win against the Oilers, whose attack seemed too much for the Mustangs. Mira Costa came back from a 20-15 deficit in the second set, fending off three set points before losing. Huntington Beach improved to 30-2.
Scott Stephanoff and Casey White led Mira Costa with 12 kills apiece. Riley Mallon added 10 kills, Ryan Kaseff had seven kills and Connor Inlow recorded five kills.
In Division 4, second-seeded Bishop Montgomery fought back from a two game deficit to eliminate No. 6 St. Margaret’s 23-25, 15-25, 25-21, 25-15, 15-8.
Bishop Montgomery (23-8) will face top-seeded Cathedral (27-9) in the championship match at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Santiago Canyon College.
