The thing about the Clairemont High School boys volleyball team is if you can figure out a way to stop their pin hitters, their middle blockers will dominate you. If you can their tough serves and put together a high-quality attack, their defense will dig whatever you bring.
And if you can somehow get them to a fifth set and have your foot on their neck, they’re not going out with the battle of your life.
The Chieftains went up 2-0, nearly fell apart, then put together an inspired fifth set in Tuesday’s first round of the Division 3 SoCal Regionals over visiting Granada Hills Valley Academy of Arts & Sciences to capture a 25-23, 25-17, 19-25, 22-25, 16-14.
Clairemont, winners of the first CIF title in program history Saturday, advances as one of the top two teams in their division in Southern California. The third-seeded Chieftains (27-10) will play at Santa Ynez (22-3), a three-set winner over El Toro (18-16), in Thursday’s regional semifinal at 6 p.m.
“We call it ‘the Clairemont,’” Chieftains coach Sean Alcaraz said. “It’s where we’re playing well and kicking butt, and we just lose focus. And then we have to dig ourselves out of a hole and we like to keep it spicy. That’s what they did — they kept it spicy.”
Senior Makoa Miner had 13 kills in a well-rounded effort. Outside hitter Sam Reedholm and middle blocker Gabe Tocco each chipped in with 12 kills; opposite Grant Schmidt had nine.
“It realy means a lot that we can go into a game and have some flaws and make some mistakes,” Miner said. “To not be all at 100% and still rely on each other to come out with a win. Everyone’s going to have off days, every team is going to have off days. So the fact that we still got the win means a lot.”
The Chieftains were in complete control for most of the first set. Up 19-12, they got blocked, had two consecutive hitting errors and got aced. A ball handling error, another hitting error and an out-of-rotation call got the visitors to within 23-22 before a couple kills from Tocco put it away.
A slim early lead in the second set went away quickly with errors on four straight plays and an 11-9 deficit. But Clairemont’s block proved to be too much for the Vipers (24-8-1) to handle. The Chieftains had five stuff blocks in the set, two each from freshman opposite Schmidt and sophomore middle Sean Sumner and one from senior middle Tocco.
The third set was tied at 17 when it fell apart for the Chieftains. The Vipers closed out the set on an 8-2 run.
The fourth set again saw the Chieftains succumb to mistakes while the Vipers got hot, in particular senior Izac Garcia. He had nine kills in the set. The Chieftains actually held a 16-14 lead after Reedholm’s kill in transition. But the Vipers scored six of the next seven points.
That took it to a fifth set, a scramble for Clairemont to find enough consistency to close it out. There were nine ties as the teams traded sideouts and mini runs.
But they live to play another day.
“I explained to the boys they’re going to scrap,” Alcaraz said. “We just have to keep fighting. Their resolve was impeccable. They were prepared. It was awesome.”
