Warriors complete volleyball turnaround with undefeated league season
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy’s Andrew Castro (3) hits over Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary defenders in their league boys volleyball match at home on Tuesday. PMA defeated Cantwell 3-2. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
It was a marathon finish for the St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy Boys Volleyball team in it’s final Santa Fe League match Tuesday (April 15) afternoon.
It took five sets, but the upstart Warriors came from behind to defeat visiting Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary 21-25, 25-15, 25-23, 22-25, 15-7 to cap off a perfect 10-0 league season.
It’s the first undefeated league season in a 10-team league for the Warriors. The last undefeated team was three years ago when they went 8-0.
“The boys deserve all of the credit,” PMA athletic director and first year boys volleyball coach James Covell said. “They’re a great group and easy to coach.
“It’s been an incredible ride, and I think this will be a program builder. In our 10 wins, we only dropped three sets. Last year they didn’t win a set.”
Covell is assisted by former All City Section setter, Chai Howard, who played at Carson High.
The Warriors have one remaining non-league match at Waverly of Pasadena next Wednesday (April 23). CIF playoffs begin the last week of April, and the brackets will be announced on their website on Saturday, April 26, at 10 am.
Remember, just a season ago, the Warriors were winless in 18 games and didn’t win a set.
PMA, which improved to 14-6 overall, had a few players in different positions for the league-clinching win.
That caused some shuffling in the various positions for Covell.
“I’m proud of the way we played,” Covell said. “We had a lot of players playing positions they weren’t as familiar with due to the absence of outside hitter David Romo. He’s our most prolific hitter, so it’s next man up for us.”
Romo was on a multiple college visit tour for his future education.
Leading the way with 17 kills was senior opposite Elijah Rostero, along with sophomore libero Brian Silva (4 aces) with 15 kills.
“The key to our win (Tuesday) was winning league and finishing strong for the playoffs,” Rostero said. “This game meant a lot and it determined if we win league. We were praying not to lose this game to be 9-1. Now we’re 10-0.
“We’re missing David Romo. He could do it all.”
“Elijah really stepped up on his senior night to lead the team in Kills and Brian stepped up into the outside hitter role from his normal Libero position and was our second most prolific hitter,” Covell added.
Junior outside hitter Andrew Castro added nine kills and had three aces. Junior middle Luis Garcia (2 aces) had six kills and Ethan Cruz (3 Aces) and Kyle Powell had two kills each, while Nathan Nakayama had a Kill.
“Garcia swapped the middle for the opposite this week in practice and has become a consistent hitter for us,” added Covell.
In the first set, PMA took a big lead, 14-4, but Cantwell went on a big run to come away with a 25 to 21 win. “We got too loose and ended up losing that set,” Covell said. “We let it get away from us and Cantwell was resilient and came back and beat us in the first set.”
In sets two and three, the Warriors came away with the wins and led, 2-1, in the match,
Highlighting the second set was a back-and-forth game until Silva served nine straight times to separate themselves from Cantwell for the 24-15 lead.
In the third set, PMA found themselves in an 11-5 hole but climbed all the way back to tie the set at 19-19. The teams traded points the rest of the way and Cantwell couldn’t get the ball over the net and eventually lost the set.
“In the second and third sets, we played our brand and style of volleyball and came out first in those two,” Covell said.
Silva and Rostero led with eight and seven kills total in the second and third sets.
After a 21-21 tie in the fourth set, Cantwell separated themselves and won four of the last five points to even the match up at 2-2.
“In the fourth set, it was kind of similar to the first one, where we were ahead and unfortunately let that one slip away as well,” said Covell, of the set loss to tie the match.
PMA put the match away in the fifth and final set after they were holding a slim, 7-5 lead going on a 5-0 run to up their lead to 12-5.
“We then traded points until an overpass by Cantwell ended with a spike by Castro to win the set and the league,” Covell said. “The fifth set was the kind of volleyball we want to play. It was the team wanting to hit and wanting to get each other involved. The style we want to play.”
Cruz looked forward to the post season, saying, “I’m looking for to winning our next playoff game in CIF and see how far we can get,” he said. “I think the turnaround was the fact that compared to last season, we didn’t have a good sportsmanship as a team, but now we worked harder and that brought us to be a better team.”
Covell said of his leaders in the match win over Cantwell:
Ethan Cruz: “He was setting really well through all five sets and providing his confidence from the service line.”
Andrew Castro: “He is playing volleyball for the first time. He was previously in PMA’s prolific basketball program and is our Swiss Army Knife. He played all three front row positions in the game.”
“Kyle Powell is our steady middle who missed most of his freshman year with a broken ankle and Nathan Nakayama donned the libero jersey and provided a few highlight digs.”
“Lastly, Christian Gomez-Chavez has been a bright spot for us. He has really come along and is improving every single play. He’s got an incredibly bright future in this sport.”