Mira Costa’s boys volleyball team jumped over Santa Margarita in the final week of league action to earn the top seed in CIF Southern Section Division 1 and began its quest for a seventh CIF championship by defeating visiting El Dorado 25-16, 25-13, 17-25, 25-13 in the first round of the playoffs Tuesday.
Mira Costa (32-1) will play at Simi Valley (17-10) in the second round on Thursday. All playoff games with the exception of the final are slated to start at 7 p.m.
The top-ranked Mustangs appear healthy and ready to make a run for the CIF, Regional and National titles. While Weston Carico and Zack Proctor provided strong performances off the bench, the Mustangs have welcomed back Jack Miller and Christopher Orenic from injuries that kept them out for more than two weeks at the end of the regular season.
Setter Kameron Bain passed the ball around recording 45 assists and contributing nine digs. D.J. White continues to lead the Mustang offense with 13 kills and seven digs.
Miller had seven kills, three blocks and five digs, Orenic had seven kills and six digs, Keith Waddell had seven kills and four blocks, Karl Acres added five kills and Tony Ensbury had 10 digs in the victory.
Quarterfinal action takes place Saturday followed by the semifinals Tuesday, May 17 and the final Saturday, May 21 at Cypress College.
Bay League runner-up Redondo (27-7) earned an eighth seed and defeated visiting Royal 25-14, 25-21, 25-19 in the opening round.
Ryan Olson had eight kills, four aces and three digs and Ryan Mather added eight kills and two blocks to lead the offense. Riley Theunissen had six kills, Greg Evans had five kills and four blocks, Louis Richard had three kills and five blocks and Kevin Fender contributed 12 digs for the Sea Hawks.
Redondo won a coin flip and will host No. 10 Dana Hills (23-10) in the second round.
Palos Verdes (23-11) is the third Bay League representative and upset Channel League champion Santa Barbara with a four-game road victory in its first post-season match. The Sea Kings will host No. 6 Thousand Oaks (21-6) in the second round.
In Division 3, Pioneer League champion South Torrance (25-8) earned a fourth seed and swept Bellflower on Tuesday, advancing to play at Downey (10-7) on Thursday.
Pioneer runner-up Torrance (17-12) in ranked seventh swept visiting South Pasadena and will play the Downey-Warren winner. El Segundo (12-7) lost a four-game match to No. 10 Cypress in the first round.
In Division 4, Bishop Montgomery (11-15) swept No. 8 Ganesha on the road and will host No. 9 St. Margaret’s (10-7) in the second round.
South Bay teams earned the top two seeds in Division 5. Santa Fe champion Vistamar (18-2) earned the top seed and defeated Pacific Lutheran, advancing to play at Holy Martyrs (12-5).
Prep champion Chadwick (19-5) swept Desert Christian and plays St. Genevieve in the second round. Playoff brackets are available at www.cifss.org.
The high caliber of volleyball played in the South Bay was evident in last week’s NCAA men’s volleyball championships, particularly by Mira Costa who had at least one former player on each of the four semifinalists.
Top seeded USC’s roster included former Mustangs Brad Keenan, a junior libero, and sophomore outside hitter Steven Mochalski, freshman setter Sean Heitzler from Palos Verdes and senior middle blocker Austin Zahn, an alumnus of Redondo Union High School who had five kills in USC’s semifinal loss to UC Santa Barbara.
Senior libero Andy McGuire, a Manhattan Beach native who played at Loyola High School, had a strong performance that included 11 digs in helping the Gauchos upset the Trojans. Also on the UCSB team were redshirt freshman middle blocker Evan Licht and freshman outside hitter Kevin Donohue, both from Mira Costa.
The third-seeded and eventual champion Ohio State squad included Mira Costa alum and freshman middle blocker Coleman Palm. In the semifinals, the Buckeyes eliminated second-seeded Penn State team whose roster included former Mira Costa standout freshman outside hitter Jace Olsen. ER
