Huntington Beach drops thrilling five-set CIF Division 1 final against Mira Costa

Huntington Beach players and coaches after Friday’s CIF final. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Anxieties ran high as Mira Costa and Huntington Beach boys volleyball teams, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation, took the court to square off for the CIF Division 1 championship Friday night at Cerritos College.

And the fans were treated to a thrilling five set match as Mira Costa outlasted Huntington Beach 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 29-31 and 15-11).

Mira Costa (33-2), which lost in the CIF finals last season, gained its first CIF title since 2021. Huntington Beach was attempting to win its first championship since 2015. The Mustangs defeated Huntington Beach for the seventh consecutive time.

Trailing two sets to one, the Oilers survived multiple championship points and battled to capture set four, 31-29. The set was tied 15 times, and both teams had a chance to win it several times. Huntington Beach’s junior outside hitter Colin Choi slammed home the final kill to give the Oilers an exhilarating win and tie the match at two sets apiece.

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The fifth set was tied 5-5 until Mira Costa rallied.

Grayson Bradford’s kill gave the Mustangs a 12-7 lead. However, the Oilers countered and cut the score to 14-11 on a block and kill by Kaegan Ramdhani, but Bradford, who is committed to UCLA, delivered the final kill, giving the Mustangs the set and the championship. Bradford finished with 29 kills.

“We left it all on the court; we have nothing to be ashamed of,” said Choi. “We fought for every point. Next year, we’ll strive to do better.”          

Despite the loss, Huntington Beach Coach Craig Pazanti said he was proud of his team.

“We came out slow in games one and three and fell behind early, but we rebounded in games two and we battled hard to win game four,” said Pazanti. “Mira Costa is a great team, and we took them to five sets and I’m so proud of our guys. They never quit.”

Huntington Beach’s opposite hitter Ben Arguello said his team played well but came up short.

“It was a great battle,” said Arguello. “We could have played a little cleaner and won it, but it really was a fun game to be a part of.”

“We played hard the whole game,” said Oilers sophomore outside hitter Logan Hutnick, who led the Oilers with 29 kills. “We worked hard to get here. Even when we got down, we continued to block shots, played defense, and we went on runs. We never gave up, I’m so proud of my team.”

Huntington Beach looked sluggish in set one and trailed nearly the entire set before losing 25-19. However, in set two the Oilers jumped out to a 7-0 lead and held a 13-3 advantage. However, the Mustangs rallied and cut the lead to 24-22 before Hutnick’s kill tied the match at one set a piece.   

In set three, Huntington Beach fell behind early but cut the lead to 20-18, before Mira Costa scored five of the last six points to win 25-19.

“I think out players had a bad taste in their mouths after losing in the finals on this court last year and that motivated them this season,” said Mira Costa Coach Greg Snyder. “Even though we didn’t play as well as I thought we could have during the regular season, as soon as the playoffs started, they turned the switch up a notch. It’s such a relief to win this title. I felt like we had so much pressure to win all year long, folks were expecting us to win.”

Notes:

—-Huntington Beach went undefeated (12-0) and won the Sunset League title. The Oilers registered 25 shutouts this season and had an eight-game winning streak coming into the finals. Their last loss was to Marist of Chicago on April 5.

—-Mira Costa captured the Bay League title this past season and won five consecutive matches entering Friday’s final. Mira Costa recorded 27 shutouts this season, including a 2-0 blanking of Huntington Beach on February 22. Their last loss was also to Marist of Chicago on April 5.

—-Mira Costa didn’t lose a set (9-0) while defeating Beckman, San Clemente, and Corana del Mar in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

—Huntington Beach dropped only one set in their first three playoff matches while defeating Newport Harbor, Redondo Union, and Loyola.