Sunny Hills Lancers celebrate after win in CIF semifinals. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
After winning the first two sets of a CIF Division 4 semifinal volleyball match against visiting Crossroads, Sunny Hills boys volleyball team had to regroup and fight off its hard-charging opponent before winning the match 3-2 before a large crowd Saturday night at at Sunny Hills.
With the win, the Lancers earned a berth in the CIF finals.
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It will be the Lancers first trip to the finals since they captured the championship in 2022. Sunny Hills (22-14) will face Royal next Friday at a site to be announced. Royal defeated Village Christian 3-1 in Saturday’s other semifinal.
“Even after they tied the match at two games apiece, we stuck to our game plan, stay focused and executed,” said Sunny Hills Coach Albert Soliguen.
“We scheduled a lot of tough matches this season, so we would be prepared for the playoffs. Our team is playing at such a high level right now but these matches are still really hard to close out. Our team kept hustling and they displayed great heart. We’ve worked so hard to get to the finals and now we’re being paid back.”
Christian Lee led the way for the Lancers with 27 kills. Lee’s teammates, Owen Filadelfia (17 kills) and Alex Lang (12 kills) also had an outstanding matches.
“We reset our energy in set five and finished fast,” said Lee, a junior outside hitter.
Filadelfia said his team regrouped to close out the match.
“As we got ready for the fifth set, we said we can’t focus on the past; it’s a new start and the score is 0-0,” said Filadelfia. “We came together when we needed to and it’s very exciting to be going to the finals.”
The Lancers led most of the way in game one, however the the Roadrunners (21-10) rallied and tied the score at 22-22. Filadelfia then drilled back-to-back kills to make it 24-22. After Sunny Hills served a ball into the net, the Roadrunners misfired on their serve, giving the Lancers a 25-23 win.
Sunny Hills scored the final six points of game two, highlighted by a kill by Marco Gaston and a game-winning ace by Jonathan Lu to post a 25-15 victory and go up two sets to none.
The Lancers appeared to be on their way to a three-set sweep, however Crossroads battled back. Jayson Sackler and Dino Steinberg combined to record 12 kills as the Roadrunners pulled away to capture set three 25-17.
The duo repeated their excellent play at the net as they combined to record seven kills and take set four, 25-23. The Lancers never led in set four, but stayed within striking distance. Sackler closed out set four with a kill to even the match at 2-2 and force a fifth set.
Sunny Hills stormed out the gate and took a 6-0 lead in the fifth set behind back-to-back kills by Lyle Pickavance and Lee, and then upped its lead to 11-5, following a kill by Filadelfia.
Crossroads called time out, but the Lancers finished off the match by winning four of the final six points, highlighted by an ace by Filadelphia, kills by Lee and Pickavance and then Parker Mesnik closed out the set and match with an ace. Mesnik was outstanding with 58 assists and seven blocks. Jadyn Salud also had five blocks for Sunny Hills.
“We all knew we could beat them and we destroyed them in game five,” said Pickvance. “This is big for me, going to the finals for the first time.”
“This is the first time for me going to a CIF final and it’s unbelievable,” said Alex King, who had a very strong game. “We always win the fifth set. We played smart and we pulled through.”
Crossroads Coach Mary Jo Deutschman said she was proud of her team’s effort., despite the loss
“We got into a hole in game five, but we didn’t give up,” said Deutschman, who has been the coach at Crossroads for 40 years. “This is a resilient group and I am proud of them. We fought back from two sets down and kept battling.”
Notes:
—-Deutschman started the Roadrunners volleyball program 40 years ago. She is a graduate Harvard Westlake High and she also attended Princeton University.
—-Crossroads outside hitter Tanner Trives has committed to play volleyball at Emerson College in Boston, Mass. next season.
—-The Roadrunners were attempting to reach their first CIF finals. They reached the semifinals in 2023 but lost.
—-Sunny Hills senior Parker Mesnik has committed to play volleyball at Wentworth Institution of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts next year and his teammate Jake Seuki is committed to play for McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois next year.
—-Lancers coach Albert Soliguen started the Sunny Hills volleyball program in 2020. He is a 2009 graduate of Garden Grove High School and was the MVP for the Argonauts as they won the 2009 Garden Grove League for the first time in 10 years.
—-Sunny Hills defeated Santa Monica, St. Monica and Northwood to reach the semifinals while Crossroads had beaten La Serna, Los Altos, and San Marino reach the semifinals. Crossroads was the third Santa Monica high school opponent the Lancers have faced in the playoffs this season.
—-Veteran broadcaster Jeff Munson announced the game on Saturday. Munson has been announcing games for 42 years. He started in broadcasting at Hollywood Park in Inglewood.
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