Boys’ Volleyball: CdM comes oh so close

NORWALK — As a player 32 years ago at Estancia High, Steve Conti ended what was then the longest boys’ volleyball winning streak in the state. The one team that has obliterated Laguna Beach’s record is Huntington Beach, and Conti had the chance to stop the mark at 100 wins.

This time Conti wasn’t playing, he was coaching Corona del Mar. He had the Sea Kings one set away from ruining the Oilers’ winning ways in the biggest match of the season, the CIF Southern Section Division 1 finals.

The No. 3-seeded Sea Kings forced a decisive fifth set, but they couldn’t deny the No. 1 Oilers’ three-peat. Huntington Beach became the third school in the section to win the top division for a third straight time, holding on for a 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 26-28, 15-8 win against CdM at Cerritos College on Saturday.

“I’m incredibly proud of these guys,” Conti said of the Sea Kings, who made their 11th section finals appearance in his 20 years in charge of CdM. “These guys have come such a long way in the last two to three years. They gave that team everything they were looking for in a match and we certainly had opportunities. That’s all we wanted from this match, is that opportunity to win, which we definitely had.”

The Sea Kings (28-7) became only the second team during Huntington Beach’s three-year run in the section playoffs to go the distance with the Oilers. Both times have come in the section finals, this year and in 2013, the year Huntington Beach began what has turned out to be the second-longest winning streak in the nation.

The Oilers made it 101 wins in a row and now they’re a dozen victories away from breaking the all-time record held by Salem of New Hampshire. They won’t get a chance to get the mark this year, but that doesn’t matter to the Oilers, who improved to 37-0. Joining Laguna Beach and Loyola as the only programs to claim three consecutive section crowns is quite the accomplishment for Huntington Beach.

The player that proved to be the difference was TJ DeFalco. The Long Beach State-bound outside hitter recorded more than half of the Oilers’ 15 points in the final set. He hammered eight kills in Game 5, and at the end of the night, DeFalco recorded 41 kills on 67 attempts, hitting .522.

Whenever setter Josh Tuaniga went DeFalco’s way, the Oilers seemed to be successful. Tuaniga finished with 63 assists.

“[DeFalco’s] really hard to game plan for because he has so many shots,” said Conti, before the question came up about which team he has faced as a player and coach is better, Huntington Beach or Laguna Beach, which had won 69 straight until Conti and Estancia beat Laguna Beach in 1983. “I don’t know if that Laguna Beach team had one guy that would get 41 kills. [The Oilers are] just different. I think that Laguna team, player for player, maybe had more talent. I think that DeFalco kid is as good as any high school kid I’ve seen in 30 years I’ve been around volleyball.”

The start of the opening set is what fans expected, no team going ahead by more than one, and when the Oilers did, CdM scored seven straight points to take a 10-5 lead. The Sea Kings responded in a major way. Sam Kobrine stuffed back-to-back shots by opposite Ben Vaught, and then UC Santa Barbara-bound opposite Kevin Fults and Pepperdine-bound middle blocker Augie Miller hammered winners.

The lead grew to as high as five twice for CdM, setter Matt Ctvrtlik getting involved in the swinging action and Ryan Moss, a future USC outside hitter, put one of his team-high 22 kills away. But the Oilers stormed back in Game 1, cutting the deficit to 21-20 on a DeFalco blast. Again Ctvrtlik recorded a kill, his third in the set, and Moss followed that up with his fifth kill to give CdM a three-point lead.

After watching Ctvrtlik, who totaled 43 assists and five kills, finish off plays, Huntington Beach’s setter got a little selfish. Tuaniga produced a kill, and then set DeFalco up for his eighth kill in the first set. The Oilers couldn’t tie things up, and Will Hunter and Moss closed things out, Hunter with a kill and Moss turning away Tuaniga at the net.

The setback marked Huntington Beach’s first in a Game 1 since April 1. But don’t be fooled, the Oilers weren’t about drop the next set. They haven’t lost consecutive sets since March 18, 2013, the date of the Oilers’ last loss.

As expected, Huntington Beach started Game 2 on a tear. The Oilers scored five of the first six points, and with the help of two of Tuaniga’s four service aces, they ran away with the set to even the match at one set apiece.

The beginning of Game 3 resembled Game 2. DeFalco put the Oilers up by as many as seven, and then CdM rallied to make it close. Then DeFalco finished the set strong, knocking the libero on his butt with a set-clinching kill to give Huntington Beach a 25-22 win.

Game 4 was tight throughout. Seventeen times the score was even. The Oilers had match point four times, but CdM stayed alive. Moss pounded three kills late, and Kobrine (12 kills, eight digs) and Fults (11 kills, six digs) banged out winners to force one last set.

With a Game 5, CdM appeared to have a chance to dethrone the Oilers. But the Sea Kings quickly fell behind, 3-1, after a DeFalco kill, and then 9-6, after DeFalco found an open spot on the court. Conti called a timeout, but the Sea Kings never got closer.

“The goal now is to hopefully be back here a week from today,” said Conti, referring to the CIF Southern California Regional Division II playoffs, which start Tuesday and end Saturday with the finals at Cerritos College. “We just need to be able to regroup.”