The Pacific Collegiate School boys volleyball team just had to take it one step further.
The Pumas, the No. 3 seed in the CIF NorCal Division II championships, upset No. 2 Placer on Thursday night in three sets to become the first Santa Cruz County team to reach the NorCal final. Despite traveling north for more than six hours in Memorial Day traffic to play the match, PCS arrived fired up and swept the Hillmen, 25-18, 25-16, 25-15.
“We got out of the car and started warming up,” PCS coach Scott Sanborn said. “I was glad they took care of business after being cooped up for so long.”
The victory sets up a rematch of the Central Coast Section championship between the Pumas and Saratoga on Saturday at Dublin High at 3 p.m. PCS won the CCS title in a hard-fought, five-set victory over the Falcons in a match last week in which both teams played well.
Saratoga, the No. 4 seed, advanced by upsetting top-seeded Campolindo, 25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 25-27, 15-7 in the first battle of past NorCal champions in tournament history. Campolindo won the first three straight NorCal titles before Saratoga took over the throne last year, when the Cougars failed to make the tournament.
The Falcons are led by Joel Schneidmiller, a USA Volleyball youth team selection who has a full-ride scholarship to play for UC Irvine, and freshman setter Mohan Duvvun, who is on a lower-tier national team, according to Falcons coach Jason Cardosa.
“We’re excited to play them again,” Sanborn said. “We know what they’re of, we know we can beat them but we also know they’re going to come after us.”
PCS shot out of the gate against Placer, in part as a strategy to take the Hillmen and their crowd — which Sanborn said outnumbered the Pumas’ supporters “200 to 10” — and in part as revenge for a loss in the Bellarmine tournament earlier in the season. PCS was missing junior Phil Grote, a strong presence in the middle, in that match. On Thursday, he came up with six kills and three blocks, while senior Wyatt Harrison led the Pumas with 20 kills and four aces. Setter Jake Sandidge added 31 assists and libero Noa Harrison made 11 digs.
“We were missing Phil,” Harrison said. “We were glad to have him back.”
Harrison was surprised to hear no other team in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League had gotten to the final.
“That’s really cool. That’s awesome,” he said. “I’m kind of bummed some of the other teams aren’t here. A lot of teams in our league could have competed with some of the teams we’ve played against in NorCals so far.”