Marina boys’ volleyball heading to semifinals with sweep of Pacifica Christian
With one final swing of his right arm, Brock Coward polished off a straight-sets victory for the Marina High School boys’ volleyball team and sent it on to the CIF Southern Section Division 4 semifinals.
The top-seeded Vikings earned a 25-15, 25-18, 25-21 win at Pacifica Christian Orange County on Wednesday evening, extending what has been a remarkable playoff run for a program that has long lived in the shadow of its Sunset Conference rivals.
Marina, a program that had not made a playoff appearance since 2002, had questions to answer when it was designated the top seed in Division 4. The Vikings received that seed despite a 5-5 record in the regular season.
“I think we’re our biggest advocates,” Vikings coach Ryan Parker said after the match. “All of us, the whole team has been all about winning.”
In notching three wins in a row without dropping a set to start the playoffs, Marina has held up its end of the bargain in keeping the top spot in the Division 4 rankings at the end of the season.
“I think they made the right choice putting us at No. 1,” Parker added.
Aiden Patterson had a team-high 12 kills to lead Marina (8-5). Daniel Purtell added 10 kills, Coward had five kills, and Dyllan Nguyen distributed 30 assists.
Where Marina should be ranked was not the only question regarding the Vikings heading into the playoffs. It had been 18 days since Marina had last played a match when it opened the playoffs against San Gabriel at home.
The layoff was brought on by a positive COVID-19 test within the program, Parker confirmed when the section released its playoff brackets.
Patterson said that the team wanted to hold itself accountable in the face of that adversity and not use it as an excuse for a playoff setback.
“For some of us, we were still playing club, so we still had touches on the ball,” Patterson said. “As a team, we didn’t really have a chance to get together. I think we practiced the day before our game and then the morning of our first game in [the] playoffs, so we had two practices before, and we arguably could have played better in that game. We’ve gotten a lot more practices in lately, and we’ve got a lot more to go.”
Nguyen’s presence has enabled Purtell to become an outside hitter, which has taken him away from his primary position of setter and allowed him to better serve the needs of the team.
Marina will play host to Downey Warren (13-0) in the semifinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. Asked what it will take for the Vikings to go all the way, Purtell said, “It’s going to take what we’ve already been doing. We’ve been playing good, and we’re finally getting a shot, and we want it, so we’ll take it.”
Middle blocker Chris Whitener was a standout for the Vikings in the third set, combining with Nguyen for two key blocks that helped the Vikings vault from an 8-3 deficit to an 18-15 lead in Game 3.
Pacifica Christian (12-7) dealt with injuries to two of its best hitters in Buzz Hodson (torn quad) and Matt MacPherson (sprained ankle), Tritons coach Tim Maruyama said. He was proud of the way his team continued to fight.
“This team went 19 matches with a different lineup every single game, players playing different positions, always compensating for the latest injury, the latest sickness, the latest kid who has to miss because they have to quarantine for COVID, and the kids just battled,” Maruyama said. “It was so fun to see their mental toughness.”
Knox Vail had nine kills, and Bennett Penticuff added 12 assists and a service ace for Pacifica Christian.
Maruyama enjoyed the environment of playing at home. Pacifica Christian was one of the last teams to hold a competition before high school sports were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020.
“We finished our last season with COVID with no fans, dead quiet, empty gym, and this was the moment we’ve been waiting for,” Maruyama said. “To actually have a packed gym and enjoy ourselves.”
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