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Sage Hill celebrates the CIF title Saturday in Santa Barbara. (Photo courtesy Sage Hill School).
It was a happy trip home Saturday from Santa Barbara for the Sage Hill School boys volleyball team.
The Lightning captured a 15-8 victory in the fifth and deciding set of the CIF Division 4 final over host Santa Barbara to earn the program’s second straight CIF title. Sage Hill won the Division 5 crown last season.
Santa Barbara won the first set 25-15, Sage Hill won the second set 25-14, Santa Barbara won the third set 25-18 before Sage Hill tied the match with a win in the fourth set 25-20.
“Truly a blessing, number one,” first-year Sage Hill Coach Jordan Hoppe told OC Sports Zone in a phone interview. “Number two, I couldn’t be more proud of the hard work our guys put in. Me being in the program a little bit later and everyone buying in and forming our culture and having Jackson (Cryst) coming back from his CIF basketball run, getting the team closer to form and then getting the opportunity to have an at-large bid and getting into these CIF Division 4 playoffs.
“I just think the timing was perfect and I think the guys put in the work to make this result happen.”
Lightning setter Connor Gapp started the fifth set off with an ace.
“Then we got a second point and then we made a hitting error and from there, it was kind of back and forth, back and forth and then we made some pivotal game-altering digs from our freshman libero Ethan McNutt and we were able to transition them out through our senior Jackson Cryst and it was just a culmination of everyone on the team working hard and not letting the Santa Barbara Dons back in and credit to their team and their abilities,” Hoppe said.
“They didn’t go away the whole game and the played us extremely hard and well.”
Cryst, a 6-10 senior outside hitter who has committed to Long Beach State to play volleyball, led Sage Hill (19-11) with 31 kills.
Cryst may have been inspired after Long Beach State won the national championship with a victory over UCLA earlier this week.
“I think that really gave him a lot more fuel,” Hoppe said. “He’s going there next year and his team just won the national title, I think that added a little fuel to his fire. He did some things on the court that you don’t see from 99 percent of volleyball players as an outside hitter. Your jaw drops, it’s pretty incredible.”
Ryan Manesh had 11 kills and McNutt had 19 digs.
A large contingent of Sage Hill fans cheered on the Lightning.
“We had our section like we usually do, Santa Barbara had about five different sections around us, they were super loud and energetic and everyone was just cheering us on,” Hoppe said. “They all did an incredible job, we couldn’t do it without their support for sure.
“Going up a level is no joke (in CIF) and it was really cool for my first year to be able to lead young men and hopefully leave an impact greater than just winning is kind of what I was aiming for and win, lose or draw, I told the boys from the beginning, even if we do win this thing, I would rather make young men more disciplined and just better.”
Sage Hill moves on to the Southern California regionals beginning Tuesday. Pairings will be announced Sunday.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com