Breakers denied trip to final
One more victory was all the separated the Laguna Beach High boys’ volleyball team from earning the chance to play for another CIF Southern Section championship.
Standing in the way of the fourth-seeded Breakers and their bid to return to the Division 2 final was top-seeded Oak Park, a team that had toyed with its first three playoff opponents. After a grueling match that featured several ebbs and flows, it was the Eagles who will be playing in that division final.
Laguna was denied a trip to the final by the visitors who took a 25-20, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22 victory at Dugger Gym.
The Eagles (32-5), who previously scored playoff sweeps against Long Beach Wilson (Moore League no. 4), Norco (Big VIII No. 2), and Canyon/Canyon Country (Foothill League No. 2), will face No. 2-seed Valencia/Valencia in the division’s title match Saturday at Cerritos College in Norwalk.
Foothill League champion Valencia swept Pacific League champ and No. 3-seed Burroughs/Burbank, 25-19, 25-19, 25-14, in Wednesday’s other semifinal match.
Laguna (19-9) fought back from an 0-1 deficit to tie the match, and put Oak Park on the brink of defeat in a pivotal third set that ended in the Eagles’ favor.
“I think you had two teams out there that were pretty evenly matched,” Laguna Coach Darren Utterback said after Wednesday’s match. “We fell behind early too many times but our kids played hard and with a lot of heart. We got beat by a better team tonight. They (Oak Park) set and passed extremely well. They out-passed us all night.”
Paced by senior outside hitter Woody Cook, middle blocker Jacob Kishineff and sophomore setter Adam Parks, the Coastal Canyon League champs pretty much were in control of the first set, taking a 4-0 lead at the outset of the match. They led by as many as seven points (14-7) but Laguna battled back to draw within 19-16. The Breakers could get no closer, though, and dropped a 25-20 set.
Laguna, champion of the Orange Coast League, again fell behind early in set two which featured Laguna’s first lead of the match and 12 tie scores. Junior middle blocker Tyler Alter, senior middle blocker Ben Jones and sophomore outside hitter Pete Obradovich played key roles for the Breakers who took their first lead (13-12) when an Oak Park shot sailed wide.
It was a drop shot by Obradovich that tied the score (18-18) the final time, and consecutive long shots out of bounds by the Eagles gave the Breakers the lead for keeps. They increased their advantage to five (24-19) on a kill by Alter, and a kill by Obradovich ended a great rally by both teams and gave the Breakers set point and a 25-22 win.
The match took a turn late in the third set where Laguna was poised to take a 2-1 lead. Instead, Oak Park rallied late to emerge with a 25-23 win to go up, 2-1.
The serving of senior Adam Lythgoe (one ace) early in the set helped the Breakers open up a 6-2 lead. They held a four-point cushions twice more, the last time at 16-12 when senior outside hitter Dane Olson rifled a shot straight down the middle of the court. The Eagles caught the Breakers at 17-17 on a double block by Parks and sophomore middle blocker Grigory Manyak. They took a 21-19 lead on a Parks block at the net, but the Breakers drew even on a Obradovich point off a block from the left-side.
Obradovich came up with another block from the left to give Laguna its final lead, 22-21. Oak Park scored the next three points and completed their comeback win (25-23) on a shot down the left side by the USC-bound Clark.
“That third game kind of got away from us,” Utterback said. “We had chances to wrap it up, but we made a few silly errors. In the fourth game, we didn’t do a good job communicating early, and that cost us.”
Rejuvenated by its third-set win, Oak Park came out smoking in the fourth set, building a 5-0 lead before Laguna scored. The Eagles ripped off the next five points for a 10-1 lead. The Breakers, though, weren’t done. They slowly crept back and got to within 17-13 behind the scoring of Alter (three points) and Obradovich.
Laguna twice would get within three points of the lead. A shot by Olson made it 23-20, and a big play in middle by senior opposite Nick Rieckhoff resulted in a point to make it 24-21. A wide shot off a block by the Breakers gave Oak Park match point and a spot in its first division final since 2012.
Obradovich led Laguna with 17 kills. Alter and Olson each had 14 kills. Sophomore defensive specialist Cole Paxson had 18 digs, and junior setter Isaac Wuff had 44 assists.
Laguna reached the semifinals by sweeping Santiago Corona (Big VIII No. 4) to start the tourney, then defeated both Moore League champ Lakewood and Sea View League champ Aliso Viejo in four sets.
“Like I said, the kids played with a lot of heart,” Utterback said. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort, because out guys put everything they had into the match. I’m hopeful that we will go to (CIF) state.”
Utterback said Laguna was in the running for a possible berth in next week’s CIF State Regionals tournament. The Breakers, who lost last year’s CIF-SS Division 2 title match to Esperanza, defeated Saddleback Valley Christian to win the Division III title of the 2014 CIF Southern California Regional.
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Twitter: @MikeSciacca