APTOS — At Santa Cruz High, boys volleyball is a way of life. Go to the beach and play volleyball after school. Then head to the gym for indoor practice in the evening. Bonding and community. On the court, it’s about having fun and winning games. Lots of wins.
Santa Cruz raised their record to an amazing 35-1 by rolling past Harbor 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 to win the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Tournament title at Cabrillo College on Thursday night. The Cardinals’ formula has now produced three straight years with both the SCCAL regular season and tournament championships.
JuJu Pally led Santa Cruz with 12 kills in 15 attacks, a superb .800 percentage. Gammon Nilssen ripped 10 kills in 16 attacks and added two aces. Tim Pohlmann and Leo Sapunor each added five kills. Harbor (20-17) was paced by Noah Luksich with eight kills and Gryphon Butler with five kills. Both teams continue play next week in the Central Coast Section playoffs.
“We just have fun out there,” Nilssen said. “We’re all beach players. Then we go out here on the court and play our best and have fun.”
The beach experience produces multi-dimensional players. Everyone learns to hustle and play defense and knows how to set, in addition to hit. Add in the raw skills and you have a powerhouse.
“They’re stacked,” Harbor coach Kendall Ronzano said. “Those athletes are gifted. I remember seeing them with textbook mechanics when they were in sixth grade. They are a great representation of our area and our league.”
In the latest CIF rankings at cifstate.org, the Cardinals are No. 8 in the state, behind six Southern Section teams and one San Diego Section team. The other CCS teams in the Top 25 are Archbishop Mitty at No. 12 and Valley Christian at No. 13.
“We played a very clean game today,” Santa Cruz setter Maverick Manor said. “We kept it simple. We played scrappy. When I’m out there, I’m thinking of all my options, all my weapons. I have a paradise out there.”
Pally and Nilssen were dominant on the outside, lefty Pohlmann matched that over on opposite, and Sapunor and James Bush added firepower in the middle. Libero Lucas Kamalani led the defense, complemented with excellent play from Pally, Nilssen and others when they rotated to the back.
In the first set, Santa Cruz led 7-6 and broke things open with a five-point run. In the surge, Bush drilled a winner from the middle, Nilssen pounded a Harbor overpass back down to the floor, and combined with Sapunor for a big double block. The Cardinals pulled away steadily thereafter.
SCHS jumped out to a 5-1 second set lead but Rejfir and Luksich hit winners as the Pirates tied matters at 7-all. Shortly thereafter, a 7-1 Cardinal run put Santa Cruz in control. Featured plays included a topspin service ace from Pally and powerful kills from Nilssen and Pohlmann.
The feisty Pirates fought hard throughout. In the third set, they pulled ahead 11-9 with Butler, Luksich and Rejfir leading the way, combined with stellar defensive play from libero Abe Schmidt. But Santa Cruz had too much firepower and an 8-1 charge turned the set back to Cardinal red. Soon they were handed the SCCAL tournament banner by league commissioner Mark Dorfman. The team held that high, along with the regular season banner. It was picture time.
“Against tough teams, we find another level,” Santa Cruz coach Justin Bates said. “JuJu is super strong and powerful. Gammon is very versatile. He’s an all-around athlete. Tim is one of our most aggressive offensive players. Maverick runs our 5-1. And our middles James and Leo came out firing today.”
For Harbor, the match closed a regular season that involved transition and success. Last year’s setter and leader Andre Yarme moved on to Menlo College. The roster is filled with youth. Butler was the only senior on the court Thursday. Both setters in Ronzano’s 6-2 system, Rocklin Paco and Eddie Weaver, are freshmen.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Ronzano said. “We’re a young team. We have 10 underclassmen. Our goal is both the long game and the short game. I am giddy about where we will be in a few years. And for this year, we had a goal to return to the CCS playoffs and we’re going back.”
Harbor was paced on the season by Luksich with 250 kills and a .390 attack percentage. Butler ripped 183 kills and led the team with 40 blocks. Rejfir added 165 kills and JJ Laughlin led the freshman attackers with 93 kills.
“We also wanted to again make the top five CCS scholarship list for cumulative GPA and we have a higher GPA than last year when we made it,” Ronzano said. “They will announce the winners soon. It makes me thrilled to have success both on the court and in the classroom.”
Now it’s time for both Santa Cruz and Harbor to see how far they can advance in the playoffs. As Ronzano noted, in the Surf City Invitational, both the Cardinals and Pirates represented the coast well against teams from “over the hill,” as SC beat Mitty and Harbor beat Bellarmine.
“This is the beginning of the season,” Pally said. “We want to make it to at least the finals of CCS and we want to win NorCals. Valley Christian may be the toughest in CCS. We beat them two out of three. They’re our big rivals.”
CCS brackets will be revealed Saturday. The section playoffs begin Tuesday, continue Thursday, and end with the finals on May 11. The CIF NorCal Regional playoffs follow.
“Three years in a row with league and tournament; I’m very excited about it,” Bates said. “I’m proud of the boys. I really like the way the guys bond. They go to the beach together and they are like a community. But this was just the beginning. Now we step into CCS and then our goal is to find a way in NorCal to be top of the top.”
THE SCORES
Santa Cruz 3, Harbor 0
25-16, 25-16, 25-20
Up next: CCS seeding meeting
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.
