Every boys volleyball team playing at this point in the postseason has its brand of volleyball, and few stray.
For Francis Parker, that means a relentless work ethic, flying around the court defensively to give the offense a good chance to win the long rallies.
The Lancers did exactly that Thursday, outlasting visiting Canyon Crest Academy 23-25, 25-16, 25-22, 24-26, 15-13 in the Division 2 Southern California Regional semifinals.
Second-seeded Francis Parker (25-12) advances to Saturday’s regional championship at top-seeded Santa Ana Mater Dei (28-12) at 6 p.m.
“That’s a good team,” Lancers coach Q Chambers said of CCA. “We had a game plan going in, and all we did was just play our brand of volleyball, play as hard as we could.”
Junior outside hitter Miles Custer had the heavy arm for the Lancers with a team-high 28 kills while sophomore middle hitter Kevin O’Brien was strong with 16 kills and three stuff blocks. Custer sured 500 kills on the season.
For the Ravens (41-3), senior outside hitter Andrew Chen had a match-high 30 kills and fellow senior outside Henry Garewal added 22 as setter Justin Zhang consistently fed his big arms.
First-year Ravens coach Noly Mon chose to keep the season in perspective after setting a section record with an undefeated regular season.
“This group is super special, and I just feel super grateful to be a part of this program,” Mon said. “I’ve never had a team this special before. And honestly, it’s with these three seniors.”
A back-and-forth first set saw the teams tied at 18 before the Ravens went on a 4-0 run, capped by Chen’s kill on the outside at the end of a long rally. Custer’s kill and O’Brien’s kill and stuff block got the Lancers to within one at 22-21. Chen had another pair of kills down the stretch and capped the set with an ace for the narrow win.
It took the hosts a set to fully wake up, and they jumped out to a 19-12 lead on Mike Smith’s stuff block. Garewal had a kill to stop a 4-0 run, but the Ravens would get only one more kill the rest of the set. Meanwhile the Lancers had five kills and a stuff block in that same stretch.
Down 14-10 in the third, the Lancers went on a 7-1 run that culminated with an Adam Fox ace. But three consecutive aces by backup setter James Oyung put the visitors up 21-19. A 6-1 run finished off by Custer’s 16th kill of the night earned the set win.
An early 5-2 Lancers lead in set four quickly became a 6-5 Ravens lead. A Smith ace at 19-17 caused a CCA timeout. A couple unforced errors looked to be the end for the visitors, but a comeback down 23-18 proved their resilience under immense pressure. A tip by Chen on set point earned the win.
As to be expected, the fifth set was tight. Neither team held a lead of more than two points until the Lancers led 13-10 and 14-11 before closing it out.
“That’s the nature of high-level volleyball,” Chambers said. “It’s going to be back and forth, back and forth. And who knows, on a different night it might be them. Another night it might be us. But that’s a really good team, really well coached. Luck went our way.”
