One week after a thrilling five-set CIF-Southern Section Division 1 final, the Mira Costa and Huntington Beach boys volleyball teams will meet against Saturday.

After winning the first two rounds of the CIF Regional, the Mustangs (35-2) and Oilers (36-4) face off in the regional final at 6 p.m. at Mira Costa. The winner advances to the first CIF State boys volleyball final, May 31 at Fresno City College.

Mira Costa won the fifth set in the CIF-SS final to claim its ninth title. The match scores were: 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 29-31, 15-11.

As expected with the top two teams, the match had extended rallies, big swings of momentum for both sides.

Grayson Bradford led Mira Costa with 25 kills and Mateo Fuerbringer had 17. Logan Hutnick led Huntington Beach with 22 kills, Benjamin Arguello and Nicholas Ganier finished with 13 and 12, respectively.

“From a maturity standpoint and from a cohesion standpoint, we’ve just stepped it up,” senior outside hitter Thatcher Fahlbusch said after the final. “Start of the season, everyone was kind of mad about not playing and we were rotating and as things settled in, kudos to all of the seniors and juniors, great job of stepping in and leading.

“I think ultimately our team culture got us this (CIF-SS title). Last year, we didn’t have great team culture and then we had to turn it around and I think this is a direct result  of the guys loving each other and working for each other.”

This is the third meeting between the two teams and the third with a championship on the line. The teams met back in February in the finals of the Redondo/Mira Costa co-hosted tournament.

Geneva, Ohio – The Mules had a successful outing in day one of the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships.

Day 1:
Colbys first event of the qualifying rounds was the women’s 4×100 relay where the Mules placed 8th overall setting a time of 46.67. This was followed by individual performances from both Levi Biery in the men’s 400m hurdles (52.27) and Fiona Mejico (59.72) in the same event on the women’s side both placing 2nd to qualify for Saturdays final in great position. Both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay concluded the busy day for the Mules. The men took 10th in their qualifying heat (3:15.65) while the women placed an impressive 4th place finish (3:47.18). 

Simone Waheed will be the lone Mule out on the track today competing in the women’s 100m qualifying round scheduled for a 3:45pm start. 

The top beach volleyball players in the world descend on Delray Beach this weekend. The AVP, the premier professional beach volleyball league, begins its 2025 season this weekend in Palm Beach County.

Palm Beach Passion, Dallas Dream, Brooklyn Blaze and San Diego all hit the main court Friday and Saturday night.

“Everybody is good. It’s just going to be an awesome night with some really high-level volleyball,” said Smash player Geena Urango.

There are eight teams in the league — each with a men’s and women’s pairing. The tour makes various stops around the country with updated standings and playoffs slated in Chicago following the season finale in Dallas in August.

AVP features some of the best players in the world, many of whom are Olympians trying to grow the game and put out an entertaining product.

“It’s such a cool event. Sometimes people don’t know it’s here, and once people come and watch these events, they’ll know how dope and fun it is to come watch,” said Smash player Chase Budinger.

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“The AVP league is in the right direction, hopefully it just continues to grow and we can get more cities, and as the cities continue to grow, hopefully more people can learn about beach volleyball,” said Smash player Toni Rodriguez.

Four matches are slated for Friday and four more matches on Saturday.

Medellin, Colombia – May 23 – The USA Cadet Women defeated Argentina 29-4 today at the 2025 PanAm Aquatics Water Polo Championships. Campbell Pence was named match MVP after recording a hat trick along with four assists and three earned exclusions. Caroline Daniel scored a team-high four goals while goalkeepers Shelby Killingsworth and Gianna Adams combined for nine saves in net. Team USA returns to the pool tomorrow, May 24 against the home country of Colombia at 1:00pm ET/10:00am PT.

Team USA jumped ahead early and never looked back in this contest. Kennedy Fahey, Daniel, Madison Mack, and Kiernan Hogan opened the scoring before Sofia Katz had the last word of the opening quarter for Argentina to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Americans. The United States made sure to end all doubt with a huge scoring output in the second period. Eden Coughran (2), Pence (3), Juliana Horton, Gia Jacob, Addison Ting, Emilia Haast (2), and Teodora Diaconu all rang the register in an offensive onslaught while Argentina managed one goal from Bianca Maria Perasso to set the halftime score at 15-2.

In the third quarter, Team USA kept it up on both ends with eight goals scored and none given up. Diaconu, Horton, Hogan, Paige Segesman, Daniel (3), and Ting pushed the lead to 23-2 without conceding a score on the other end. The final frame saw Argentina put two on the board from Pilar Enrique and Candela Arce as Fahey (2), Hogan, Mack, Haast, and Segesman put the finishing touches on a 29-4 win.

Team USA went 6/8 on power plays and 5/5 on penalties while Argentina went 2/4 on power plays and 2/3 on penalties.

Scoring – Stats

USA 29 (4, 11, 8, 6) C. Daniel 4, K. Hogan 3, K. Fahey 3, C. Pence 3, E. Haast 3, A. Ting 2, M. Mack 2, J. Horton 2, E. Coughran 2, P. Segesman 2, T. Diaconu 2, G. Jacob 1

ARG 4 (1, 1, 0, 2) C. Arce 1, P. Enrique 1, B. Maria Perasso 1, S. Katz 1

Saves – USA – S. Killingsworth 5, G. Adams 4 – ARG – E. Giusto 1, F. Escola 1

6×5 – USA – 6/8 – ARG – 2/4

Penalties – USA – 5/5 – ARG – 2/3

 

Iowa City High girls track runner Nina Peterson and Iowa City Liberty boys tennis player Noah Gilbert were voted by readers as the Press-Citizen’s Athletes of the Week for May 12-18.

Peterson won girls Athlete of the Week with 42% of the vote.

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Peterson earned a trip to the Iowa high school state track and field meet after she placed third in the 3000 meters at the 4A state qualifying meet on May 15. The senior Little Hawk clocked in a time of 10:39.14.

Gilbert clinched boys Athlete of the Week with 42% of the vote.

Gilbert collected a singles victory for the Liberty boys tennis team during a 5-1 substate win in 2A over Cedar Falls on May 17. Gilbert won the first set, 6-4, before he dropped the second set, 4-6. He clinched the final set, 1-0 (10-7).

The Press-Citizen reached out to Iowa City Liberty boys tennis for a photo of Noah Gilbert but did not receive one by production deadline.

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Marc Ray is the high school sports reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. He can be reached at MARay@gannett.com , and on X, formerly Twitter, at @themarcszn.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Nina Peterson, Noah Gilbert are Press-Citizen’s Athletes of the Week

DAVIS, Calif. –   Called to action, senior Dani Barrett and junior Maya Shinnick will represent the Aggies on the track at the 2025 NCAA West First Round, starting next Wednesday, May 28th.
 
Barrett repeats her qualification from the 2024 season in the 10,000-meter run, seeded at 14th in the west. She was one of twelve 10k runners in the west to move onto the NCAA Championship last year and looks to find her way to Eugene once more. She earned her qualifying run at the Mike Fanelli Track Classic, where she clocked her first place-winning and self-record breaking time of 33:07.17.
 
Shinnick earns her first NCAA qualification of her career, coming into the event at 35th with her time of 53.31 in the 400-meter dash. She ran her NCAA-worthy time at the Sac State Hornet Invite with her first place performance that also put her second overall in the Aggie records.