Oilers, Chargers to meet in CIF SoCal final

The Huntington Beach and Edison high school girls’ volleyball teams have been on the same path for almost a month.

They shared the Sunset League girls’ volleyball title in late October. In the first week of November, they lost on the road in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

The rivals are now going to meet for a third time to decide which one is the better program. At stake is a trip to the CIF State Division I finals.

The top two seeds in the Southern California Regional playoffs took care of business at home on Tuesday. Top-seeded, Huntington Beach beat No. 4 Ventura, 15-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-20, while No. 2 Edison defeated No. 3 Lakewood, 25-18, 20-25, 25-20, 14-25, 15-11.

The Oilers secured their spot in the SoCal Regional finals first, almost a half an hour before the Chargers. The Oilers are looking to make their first state finals appearance in 20 years, while the Chargers hope to qualify for the big stage for the first time in the program’s history.

The Oilers (32-4) get to play host to Edison (34-8) on Saturday at 7 p.m. because they’re the higher seed. During league play, the teams split their two matches, Huntington Beach won at Edison in three sets on Sept. 27, and Edison won at Huntington Beach in five sets on Oct. 13.

“We’re just happy to be out here,” Huntington Beach Coach Craig Pazanti said when asked how special it would be to face Edison again. “I’m just super proud of the girls.”

The Oilers got past a daunting opponent. Ventura went into Tuesday with only two losses, and a month ago, in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, it beat San Jose Archbishop Mitty, which at the time was one of the top ranked teams in the country.

Things began well for the Cougars (36-3), as it won Game 1. Then the Oilers bounced back. Outside hitter Cami Sanchez led Huntington Beach with 19 kills and opposite Jillian Kim finished with 12 kills and four service aces. Maggie Baker added nine kills.

“We made some adjustments with our lineup,” Pazanti said after his team lost the opening set. “Part of it was getting [Kim and Baker] a little bit more reps. It was awesome to see [them] step up, and Jillian more so defensively. She did a great job on offense. But she did a really good job digging balls in the back row and keeping things alive.”

For the second time in four days, the Oilers got off to a slow start. They trailed by as many as 10 points early in the quarterfinals against No. 8 Chula Vista Eastlake on Saturday, and three days later, the Oilers fell behind Ventura, 13-5.

Pazanti didn’t call a timeout, opting to let his team figure things out on the court. The Oilers cut the deficit to 14-9, but when Ventura went back ahead by eight, Pazanti motioned for a timeout, hoping his team could come back.

Huntington Beach could not rally as it did in the opening set against Eastlake. The Cougars took Game 1, and their balanced attack was too much for the Oilers. Aubrey Knight, Sammy Slater, a senior heading to UCLA to play sand volleyball, and Anahi Garcia each had kills down the stretch, and Libby Litten had an ace, as Ventura ran away with the first set.

Game 2 began like the first one. Ventura produced six of the first eight points. Sanchez snapped the Cougars’ 6-0 run with a kill, and the Oilers stayed within striking distance.

Huntington Beach caught Ventura at 13-13, on a Kim kill. From there, the second set went back and forth. It was even six times, only the Oilers managed to take a two-point lead. The second time it was because of Sanchez, who recorded back-to-back kills to put Huntington Beach ahead, 22-20.

The Cougars committed two violations late, and the Oilers closed out Game 2 scoring the final five points to split the first two sets. Sanchez played well in the second set, hammering nine kills, including the one that clinched it.

After sluggish starts in the first two sets, the Oilers came out fast in Game 3. They jumped out to a 9-4 lead. Kim and Mahina Williamson combined for a block, Julia Jackson turned a shot away, and Kim had two kills.

Ventura, the CIF Southern Section Division 2 champion, couldn’t get back in Game 3. It was the same case in Game 4, after the Cougars got within, 14-12.

A two-point Huntington Beach lead turned to five because of Kim. The junior had a kill, a block and an ace during the Oilers’ 4-1 run.

“We really wanted to make it to the [SoCal Regional] finals,” said Kim, who smiled when asked if she wanted to see Edison again.