Tyler Hendrickson was born and raised in Long Beach, and started covering sports in his hometown in 2010. After five years as a sportswriter, Tyler joined the athletic department at Long Beach State University in 2015. He spent more than four years in the athletic communications department, working primarily with the Dirtbags baseball program. Tyler also co-authored of The History of Long Beach Poly: Scholars & Champions.

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With the CIF Southern Section Division 4 Championship Plaque at its fingertips the Santa Barbara High boys’ volleyball team had no answer for Sage Hill and its superstar outside hitter Jackson Cryst.

The visiting Lightning took control in the decisive fifth set behind Cryst’s dominance and captured a 15-25, 25-14, 18-25, 25-20, 15-8 victory on Saturday afternoon at J.R. Richards Gymnasium.

“To get here is quite an accomplishment, but to win it is even harder,” said Santa Barbara High coach Chad Arneson. “Give our boys a lot of credit they played hard. Unfortunately it wasn’t one of our best overall team performances, but I’m so proud of these boys.”

The Dons advanced to the CIF-SS Division 4 Championship games despite finishing third in the Channel League. Santa Barbara has thrived in the playoffs as a balanced unit with nearly equal contributions coming from everyone on the floor.

Senior Benicio Duarte  sophomore Hayes Costner led the way for Santa Barbara offensively with 12 kills apiece. 

“I’m proud of our guys. We did not look this good at the start of the season,” said Santa Barbara High senior defensive specialist Jack Goligoski, who finished with a team-high three aces . “This whole playoff run, we’ve kind of found our lineup and everyone’s just stepped up and played great team volleyball. We don’t have any real standouts, but we always play really well together.”

Santa Barbara was dominant in the opening set, including a 5-1 run capped off by a Costner kill for the final point. However, Sage Hill flipped the script in set 2, jumping out to a 17-7 lead and evened the match at one set apiece after an electric ace serve by Cryst.

Sage Hill humped out to a 4-0 lead in set three after a Santa Barbara hitting error, but the Dons quickly recovered and tied the set at 6-6 on a kill by Kristian Dybdahl. 

The momentum shift was evident as a Luke Zuffelato kill increased the Santa Barbara lead to 19-13. A dump by Santa Barbara setter Chase Holdren brought the Dons to set point at 24-18 and Santa Barbara clinched the set on a Sage Hill hitting error.

Set four was tight throughout as a solo block by Zuffelato cut the Santa Barbara deficit to 22-20 and forced a Sage Hill timeout. 

Cryst delivered a powerful spike out of the timeout to give Sage Hill a 23-20 lead and the Lightning went on to force a fifth and final set after an ace serve by Ethan McNutt.

In set five, a kill by Costner cut the Santa Barbara deficit to 7-6, but  a Cryst kill gave Sage Hill a 9-7 lead and forced a Santa Barbara time out.

After the break Sage Hill closed the match on a 6-1 run, including three powerful kills by Cryst and a solo block that gave the lightning a 14-8 lead. Sage Hill clinched set five and the CIF-SS Championship on a Santa Barbara hitting error.

Cryst, who is committed to play college volleyball for  reigning NCAA Division 1 National Champions Long Beach State, had six kills in the fifth set.

“We definitely rely on him, but the others that contributed absolutely made an impact and made his job easier,” said Sage Hill coach Jordan Hoppe of Cryst. “Obviously he is very talented and has incredible gifts, but without the other guys we don’t win a title.”

The victory clinched back-to-back CIF-SS Championships for Sage Hill as the Lightning won in Division 5 last season. 

NORWALK — Just two years removed from a 1-23 season, the El Toro boys volleyball team reached the summit and made school history in the process.

The Chargers capped a sensational turnaround Saturday with a victory over Quartz Hill in four sets, 17-25, 28-26, 25-21, 25-19, in the Division 6 final at Cerritos College.

It is the first CIF-SS boys volleyball championship for El Toro.

El Toro coach Sean Dixon, in his third-year at the helm, reflected on the journey that saw his team go from nearly worst to first.

““To be the first program to do it at El Toro and really to be a program that started at the bottom and made it to the top,” Dixon said, “obviously we have state next week, but, you know, they’re going to remember this for the rest of their lives. And it’s going to be such a good experience that they look back on fondly.”

Senior outside hitter Ryan Lim collected a match-high 24 kills and 14 digs for El Toro (18-15), which was the No. 2 seed in Division 6.

Senior Jeremy Gould finished with 12 kills,12 digs and three aces and Ziyuan Liu added 10 kills. Senior setter Moses Kim had 52 assists while controlling the action while Ben Earnsahw and Colin Fletcher provided key plays in crucial moments.

The Royals (27-13) took the opening set thanks to their middle blocker, Joseph Bonner, who had four kills in the set. Quartz Hill also tallied six total blocks at the net.

“I think we were all a little bit nervous and to be fair, I think that is a good thing,” Dixon said. “But it was really nothing new for us. This is, I want to say, the fourth match in a row where we’ve been down a set at a certain point.”

Lim shared his thoughts on the pregame and opening-set jitters as well.

“I was feeling it myself, the entire bus ride here, to be honest,” Lim said. “Yeah, I was walking here, and my hands were shaking and everything. First set, my chest was tight and everything, and I guarantee you, the other guys were feeling it too. But, you know, once we get in our rhythm, we ball out.”

“I give credit to our two captains, Moses Kim and Ben Earnshaw, for really just keeping the guys calm on the court,” Dixon said. “Li bringing everyone in after every point. I think that was just the biggest difference.”

The Chargers fought off a set-point opportunity for the Royals in the second set, on a swing by Earnshaw, then after a service error , found themselves in danger of going down 2-0 in the match once again.

Lim’s kill and Fletcher’s ace gave El Toro a chance at their own set point, which Gould helped win, 28-26, after a long rally and a tough swing at the pin.

“We just kind of got fired up after that (first set),” Gould said. “We’re like, ‘We can’t let this be our last play, you know? We gotta just bring all we have.”

Dixon praised Lim’s play, especially as the match progressed. Lim had eight kills in the second set, five in the third and six in the fourth.

“He’s just one of those guys that gets stronger as the game goes on,” Dixon said.

Dixon took one final introspective glance at his team’s journey and described the joy it brought him.

“I’m more happy for the guys because it’s really tough to win only one match (in 2023) and really just to stay positive after you’re basically losing every game,” he said. “I’m just so happy for them. You know, they really worked hard. I just remember them being young sophomores who really just got their first taste of varsity. A lot of them didn’t play JV, it’s just incredible.”

By Bill Hester, Special to the Post-Dispatch

Area state medalists

It was fitting Connor Koski clinched El Camino Real’s championship with a block on match point in Saturday night’s City Section Open Division boys volleyball final at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa.

“I timed my jump and I thought it was going out but I guess it hit [an opposing player’s] foot on the way down,” said an exuberant Koski, who moved from middle blocker to opposite hitter before the playoffs. “I asked [coach Alyssa Lee] to switch me and it worked.”

El Camino Real’s triumph culminated in a 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 25-21 victory over top-seeded Venice, but the title was four years in the making. Eleven of the Royals’ 12 players are seniors.

“We’re all friends, we all trust each other, and it’s a dream come true to win a championship in one of our last matches together,” said Tyler Lee, who paced the squad with 14 kills. “We’ve lost our share of five setters, so we wanted to end this thing in four.”

Connor Koski hammers a kill over Venice’s Sam Engelen in the City Section Open Division boys’ volleyball final at Birmingham High on Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Koski, El Camino Real’s lone junior, had eight kills, including one to end the second set. Dev Vunnam and Christian Romero also each had eight kills, Jackson Riepe had seven and Nicolas Gerola served four aces, the first of which gave El Camino Real the first set.

The third-seeded Royals (27-13) got hot at the right time and avenged a pair of West Valley League losses to Chatsworth by ending the Chancellors’ bid for a third straight Open title with a shocking 25-23, 25-16, 25-22 semifinal upset Tuesday.

“I’ve known this group since their freshman year and I’ve push them hard in practice to prepare them for those situations,” said Lee, who understands the intensity of every match in the West Valley League, having played libero for Granada Hills before graduating in 2009. “The physical talent is there but the mental training is so important. You have to stay focused and can’t let up.”

Lee coached the boys to the Division I title in 2016 (the Open Division debuted in 2018) and guided the girls to the Open championship in 2023. She also has coached the girls to two beach volleyball crowns.

El Camino Real’s (left to right) Christian Romero, Connor Koski and Jackson Riepe celebrate a match point during the City Section Open Division championship match against Venice on May 17, 2025.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

“The first two times we played Chatsworth I just let the boys play but I game-planned a lot for the semifinals,” Lee said. “We needed a big guy on the right like Connor to block and get some kills.”

Trailing by four points early in the third set and in danger of being swept, the Gondoliers (36-6) used an 8-0 run to surge into the lead and finished it on Nathan Hoggatt’s emphatic kill. Noah Smith had 10 kills for Venice, last year’s Division I champion.

Something had to give as Venice entered on an 11-match winning streak dating back to April 21 (dropping only one set in the process) while El Camino Real had won five consecutive matches and 15 straight sets since April 9.

In Saturday’s Division II final, hitter Izac Garcia helped Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences take home its first City title after a 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-15 triumph over Mendez, which was seeking its first crown since back-to-back Division III championships in 2021-22.

Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences players celebrate after defeating Mendez to win the City Section Division I boys’ volleyball championship Saturday.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Hamilton, last year’s Division V champion, moved up to Division IV and beat Port of LA for the championship. In Division V, Wilson downed Harbor Teacher for its first-ever title.

On the same floor Friday, top-seeded Taft captured its seventh section crown, sixth in Division I and first since 2015 with its 25-10, 25-20, 25-17 sweep of No. 2 Carson. Arman Mercado, who took over the girls’ program in 2000 and the boys two years later, coached the girls to their first Open Division title in the fall and has guided the Toreadors to 22 finals appearances.

East Valley swept Maywood CES for the Division III title — the Falcons’ first in boys volleyball.

Also on Friday, Mira Costa outlasted Huntington Beach in five sets in a South Bay showdown for the Southern Section Division 1 championship at Cerritos College. The top-seeded Mustangs prevailed, 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 29-31, 15-11, behind 25 kills from Grayson Bradford — the last from the right side to end the match.

Mateo Fuerbringer added 17 kills for Mira Costa, which fell in three sets to Loyola in the finals last spring. Logan Hutnick led the charge for the second-seeded Oilers, who staved off four championship points in a wild fourth set. It was the Mustangs’ ninth section title and first since 2021.

Mater Dei rallied to beat Peninsula 20-25, 25-17, 25-13, 25-19 in Division 2.