MANHATTAN BEACH — The Mira Costa boys volleyball team had more than just a game and thoughts of a return to the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship match on its minds Friday night.

The top-seeded Mustangs swept fourth-seeded Corona del Mar 25-13, 25-21, 25-20 to close out Pool A play unbeaten through three matches.

Mira Costa (32-2) did so in memory of Loyola senior tennis star Braun Levi, who was killed Sunday while on foot when he was struck by a suspected drunk driver.

Before the match, the entire Mira Costa team warmed up in T-shirts with the message “Live Like Braun” on the back that was placed underneath a depiction of the sun that had the Loyola logo at the center.

The reserves donned the shirts throughout the match.

“It was tough because in practice we were a little down, but I think it really motivated us,” Mustangs sophomore Mateo Fuerbringer said. “Braun was a really good kid and everyone’s friend. It really motivated us to come out and play hard and win.

“He always had a smile on his face wherever he was. No matter what the situation was, he always smiled.”

Mira Costa will face second-seeded Huntington Beach, the Pool B winner, in next Friday’s championship match scheduled for 7 p.m. at Cerritos College. Last year, the Mustangs were swept by Loyola in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship match.

Mira Costa is seeking its first CIF-SS title since 2021, and coach Greg Snyder is hoping recent history is on his team’s side as it starts “smelling the finish line.”

The Mustangs avenged a 2019 loss in the finals with a championship in 2021. No champion was crowned in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Oh, it definitely sticks,” Snyder said of last year’s result. “I think whoever loses the CIF finals has a clear advantage in the next one. They just get hungrier.”

Mira Costa got a team-high 10 kills from Karson Knapp to go with nine kills and three service aces from Fuerbringer. Middle blocker Alex Heins chipped in eight kills and three blocks.

The Mustangs overwhelmed the Sea Kings (25-6) from the outset, racing out to a 12-2 advantage in the opening set. The Mustangs had a balanced attack, scoring from both pins and the middle.

The Sea Kings did not settle into a rhythm until they erased an early deficit in the second set.

“‘We’ve been here before,’” CdM coach Katey Thompson said she told her team. “‘We’ve lost in this gym before, that shouldn’t shake us at all.’ So, in that second set we needed to come out and play CdM Sea Kings volleyball. We came out with a little bit more pressure on them, switched our lineup, moved things around, and it gave us a good start in that second set.”

CdM immediately bounced back from a 3-0 hole to start the set and took its first lead of the contest after Hunter Hanneman’s block capped a string of four consecutive points to pull ahead 4-3.

It was the Sea Kings’ third consecutive block of the spurt.

Mira Costa trailed by as many as four but regrouped thanks to a strong serve from Fuerbringer, who had two of his three aces in the set.

Trailing 13-10, Fuerbringer’s pair of serves were part of a 6-1 run to take back control.

CdM tied the set on a pair of occasions, including the last instance at 17-17, but never jumped back in front.

“I feel like we’re kind of finding our grove right now,” Snyder said. “A lot of times we play, like, two good sets and one not quite as sharp. So, every time I see three good sets I’m absolutely fired up and realize the guys are doing in the right direction. It couldn’t be at a better time.”

Snyder and Heins added that part of the major points of emphasis were to take away Sea Kings outside hitter and No. 1 option Ben Brown, who had just one kill in the opening set before finishing with nine and an ace.

In the third set, Mira Costa setter Andrew Chapin continued to spread the wealth.

Leading 14-11, Chapin faked out the CdM block as he sold a swing attempt well before passing off to middle blocker Wyatt Davis in the same motion for the easy kill.

“It makes life a lot easier,” Fuerbringer said of Chapin. “We get 1-on-1s all the time and we have a bunch of great hitters.”

The Sea Kings pulled within 18-17 on Brown’s ace but never made another run to extend the contest.

The match was moved up a day to accommodate the players attending the celebration of life Saturday for Levi.

Snyder said the school put in the request to move up the date with the CIF-SS. Thompson said CdM was notified of the approved change Tuesday night.

Heins said the Mustangs began to grieve together Monday.

“We all just went through a tough time. The best way to come back from that is just try to get things back to normal, just play,” Heins said. “We all love this game, (Levi) loved this game. Just kind of support his memory by playing this game.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Coming off a dramatic win on Friday, the Big West champion University of Hawai’i women’s water polo team will take on top-seeded Stanford in the semifinals of National Collegiate Water Polo Championship on Saturday, May 10 in Indianapolis. The match is scheduled for noon Eastern Time (6 a.m. Hawaii Time) and will be streamed on ncaa.com.

The Rainbow Wahine defeated California 8-7 in the quarterfinals on Friday to advance to the NCAA Championship semifinals for the second straight year and the sixth time overall and will be seeking the program’s first berth in the national final.

ALL-TIME SERIES RECORDUH is 1-36 all-time against Stanford (0-2 in the NC Women’s Water Polo Championship)
Last Meeting: Stanford 12, Hawai’i 7 (Jan. 18, 2025; Fresno, Calif.)

OPENING SPRINT

• The Rainbow Wahine defeated California 8-7 in the quarterfinals on Friday to advance to the NCAA Championship semifinals for the second straight year and the sixth time overall.
• UH sophomore Daisy Logtens made 12 saves in the win, the second highest total in an NCAA tournament match in program history.
• UH got two goals each from Bernadette Doyle, Jordan Wedderburn, Alia Burlock and Ema Vernoux to account for the ‘Bows’ scoring.
• UH earned the No. 4 seed in the nine-team bracket after claiming the Big West title for a second straight year. Daisy Logtens was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player with 29 saves (61.7% SV) and two steals and an assist.
• The Rainbow Wahine are making the program’s ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and earned back-to-back berths for the first time since 2005 and ’06.
• Stanford was awarded the top seed in the NCAA tournament bracket after winning the MPSF Championship.
• Ema Vernoux leads UH with 77 goals, the fourth highest single-season total in program history, and 97 points.
• Vernoux also leads the team with 16 hat tricks on the season, followed by Jordan Wedderburn with 14, and Bernadette Doyle with 12.
• Doyle, the Big West Player of the Year, is second on the team in points (93) and leads the ‘Bows in assists (38) and steals (53).
• UH is now 7-13 all-time in the NCAA Championship, including 6-3 in first-round games.  
• UH entered the week 3-4 against teams in the bracket this season (Stanford, 0-1; Loyola Marymount, 1-0; USC, 0-2; California, 1-0;  UCLA, 1-1).

THE MATCHUP
Stanford Cardinal

• UH is 1-36 all-time against Stanford, including 0-2 in the NC Women’s Water Polo Championship with losses in 2005 and ’09, both coming in the third-place match.
• UH and Stanford meet for the second time this season. The Cardinal posted a 12-7 win over the ‘Bows in the Fresno State Polopalooza on Jan. 18 in the opening weekend of the season.
• UH earned its first win in the all-time series with the Cardinal last season, 9-7 in overtime on Jan. 20, 2024 in the Polopalooza in Fresno, Calif.
• Stanford was awarded the top seed in the NCAA tournament bracket after winning the MPSF Championship.
• Stanford is the only program to have participated in all 24 NCAA Championships and is seeking its 10th national title.
• John Tanner is in his 28th season as Stanford’s head coach. He’s led the Cardinal to nine NCAA titles and was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2019.
• The Cardinal opened this year’s NCAA Championship by tying the program’s scoring record in a 28-6 win over Wagner in the quarterfinals on Friday. Five players had hat tricks for Stanford.
• Jenna Flynn leads Stanford with 60 goals followed by Ryann Neushul with 58 and Jewel Roemer with 45. All three were members of the 2024 U.S. Olympic team.
• Christine Carpenter has 150 saves in goal for the Cardinal.

NC WOMEN’S WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

Opening Round – Wednesday, May 7

Wagner 19, McKendree 7

Quarterfinals – Friday, May 9

No. 1 Stanford 28, Wagner 6

No. 4 Hawai’i 8, California 7

No. 2 UCLA 11, LMU (CA) 8

No. 3 USC 18 Harvard 7

Semifinals – Saturday, May 10

Stanford vs. Hawai’i 6 a.m. HT (ncaa.com)

UCLA vs. USC, 8 a.m. HT (ncaa.com)

Championship – Sunday, May 11

Championship, 6 a.m. HT (ESPNU)

#WahineWP

The Hawaii water polo team locked down Cal when it mattered and locked up a semifinal berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Goalkeeper Daisy Logtens came up with several clutch stops in the fourth quarter as the fourth-seeded Rainbow Wahine rallied to win 8-7 over the Golden Bears, who knocked UH out in the 2024 national semifinals.

First-year head coach James Robinson attained the first NCAA postseason win of his career after serving as an assistant to Maureen Cole the last two years.

“Talk about resiliency, being able to fight back in that fourth quarter and make stop after stop,” Robinson said in a video interview from the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind.

UH (22-4) takes on top-seeded Stanford (23-1) at 6 a.m. Hawaii time Saturday for a shot at the program’s first national championship match. It will be livestreamed at NCAA.com.

UH sprinted out to a 4-0 lead on Cal, but saw its advantage dwindle to 5-3 by halftime against the up-tempo Bears, whose Eszter Varro netted a hat trick. The MPSF team took a 6-5 lead entering the fourth quarter.

From there, Logtens, the Big West’s first-team goalkeeper from the Netherlands, batted away a series of balls put on frame by Cal. She finished with 12 saves, a program record in an NCAA Tournament game, bettering her own record of 11 from last year.

“To be honest, obviously the last moments are really important, but they don’t feel any different than any other moment in the game,” said Logtens, who was given the honor of applying Hawaii’s name to the final four in the poolside NCAA bracket.

Robinson, sitting between Logtens and Big West Player of the Year Bernadette Doyle on the interview table, smiled at the sophomore’s reserved response.

“When the moment is the biggest, she steps up when we need a huge save,” Robinson said moments before Logtens spoke. “One of the most cool, calm and collected individuals on the team. And I mean, she showed that, big stop after big stop, not getting rattled, just awesome performance all around, but that fourth quarter was special.”

Center Jordan Wedderburn tied it up in the opening seconds of the fourth. BWC Freshman of the Year Ema Vernoux then scored on a penalty shot drawn by Camille Radosavljevic. Doyle put her team in prime position to advance by lobbing in a goal for a two-goal lead with 4:35 remaining.

Cal (19-6) scored on a steal with nine seconds left, but UH drained the rest of the clock.

Doyle, Wedderburn, Vernoux and Alia Burlock scored two goals apiece for UH.

Doyle referenced the team’s disappointment falling to Cal 9-6 in last year’s tournament, falling agonizingly shy of the program’s first title game appearance. She also referenced teammate Tara Logan, who went home to Australia due to a family emergency.

“We really wanted this today. We wanted it for all our families. We wanted it for our teammate, Tara,” Doyle said. “We wanted it for the Hawaiian Islands, and we came up firing because we’re all so united as a team, and we’re stoked, especially after last year, which was a little bit heartbreaking. We came out and just wanted to prove to everyone how hard we’ve been working this year under Coach James.”

Stanford beat UH 12-7 on Jan. 18 in the second match of the season. The Cardinal, one of three programs to account for all NCAA women’s water polo national titles along with UCLA and USC, blitzed Wagner 28-6 in their quarterfinal.

“Stanford, obviously, is an amazing team, 1 in the country for a reason, a lot of Olympians,” Robinson said. “I think it’s going to take a lot of what we just did, and more. We’ve got to be smart. Can’t give them any transition opportunities, which is obviously a challenge in and of itself. Got to be willing to be aggressive and attack them right back. You can’t be passive against a Stanford team like this.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.