When La Costa Canyon High’s boys volleyball team has won this season, it’s usually behind an equally powerful attack from the pins and the middle.
Saturday when it mattered most, the Mavericks won behind the service line.
La Costa Canyon notched 11 aces to power its way to the first CIF SoCal Regional championship in program history, a 25-13, 25-20, 18-25, 25-15 Division 3 win over West Ranch in a match played at Golden Valley High School.
“I think we caught them off guard in the first set with our serving, something we have really tried to work on the past couple of weeks,” coach Mark Brubaker said. “Even though our season did not start out the way we hoped, we knew we could play better volleyball and my players just kept grinding.”
The Mavericks (18-19) were led by their do-everything senior Carson Ball. The setter/opposite had a match-high five aces with 12 kills.
Senior middle blocker Maddox Brandenburg had a match-high 13 kills with two aces. Senior outside hitter Lucas Dale had 10 kills, three aces and two blocks. A couple of underclassmen were crucial to the win: Owen Shaw had nine kills and two blocks, and Jayden Magnin added seven kills and four blocks.
After dropping the third set, La Costa Canyon took an 11-5 lead on Magnin’s kill off the block in transition. Two points later, the Mavericks went a perfect 9-for-9 in serve receive conversion the rest of the way. They celebrated when Brandenburg stuffed a Wildcats (27-12) attack at match point.
Torrey’s undefated boys tennis season ends
Torrey Pines’ undefeated boys tennis season came to an end in Saturday’s CIF Southern California Regional finals. Irvine University beat the Falcons 5-2 at the Claremont Club, dropping Torrey to 25-1 this season.
University has won two straight SoCal titles.
Del Norte wins mixed doubles in bton
Del Norte’s Mihir Thaha and Pradyun Gowda, who was San Diego’s top mixed doubles pair, won a CIF Southern California Regional Bton Championships Saturday at Arcadia High School.
Thaha and Gowda won their first two matches in straight sets, getting into the finals. They won their first set 21-11 only to watch Jackson Hu and Terry Wang of Walnut High School take the second set, 21-16, leading to a winner-take-all third set.
The Nighthawk duo were able to spread their wings for a 21-11 third-set victory to give San Diego its lone regional championship of the day.
Rancho Bernardo’s Justine Yong, who won first CIF-San Diego Section girls singles title in Broncos history last week, did not lose a set in her first three matches entering the girls singles championship. However, Yong fell short in the championship, losing to Glen A. Wilson High’s Ella Mak, the No. 1 player from the Southern Section, in straight sets.
San Diego’s top mixed doubles team of Mira Mesa’s Bogdan Shamrai and Elizabeth Tran competed in the consolation bracket after losing their opening-round match. After needing three sets in both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, the Marauders duo defeated Long Beach Wilson’s Abhishek Jain and Susana Martinez in straight sets, 21-9, 21-13 to take home fifth place and consolation title.
The best finishers in boys singles were Del Norte’s Mingshen Luo and Canyon Crest Academy’s Raghav Patrachari, who both lost in the consolation quarterfinals.
