CHULA VISTACHULA VISTA — When Mission Vista High School played in April’s West Coast Challenge Tournament, it took a pair of losses on the tournament’s second day, taking it on the chin against Bonita Vista and Eastlake.
But as good boys volleyball teams do, the Timberwolves learned more about themselves through the losses rather than the 30-plus wins this season.
What they learned was toughness, resiliency and belief can be equal to ing, setting and hitting.
The lesson paid off in the biggest way possible Saturday as Mission Vista captured the first CIF San Diego Section championship in program history with a 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-18 win over Canyon Crest Academy in the Division 2 final at Southwestern College.
“Coming into that tournament we had played a bunch of five-set matches, including against CCA,” Mission Vista coach Miriam Gardner said. “We were not mentally there. But we just got back into the gym, reset ourselves, got healthy and get ready for the rest of the season.”
That lesson on resiliency paid off for Mission Vista (33-6) after a first-set loss. The Timberwolves had 12 errors in the set, including ing the ball out of bounds twice on relatively easy transition balls.
Mission Vista cleaned it up in the second set, hitting its fair share of attacks out but doing it aggressively.
The Ravens (22-16) fought back to tie it at 17, which caused Gardner to take a timeout. It worked as the Timberwolves scored five of the next six points. Merrick Swenson and Brody Hagenah each had a pair of kills in the run. Nolan Apodaca had a stuff block of Andrew Chen for the set win.
“After that first set, we just took into what we did wrong and fixed it,” said Hagenah, a 6-foot-3 outside hitter. “I feel like our team has always been heavy-hitting on offense. We’re a swing-or-go-home type of team. We have more errors based on the fact we swing more, which shows the heavy-hitting power we have.”
Mission Vista put together a 7-0 run in the middle of set three for a 23-11 lead, but Canyon Crest Academy didn’t go down easily. The Ravens put together their own 8-0 run to close it to 23-19. But Hagenah crushed a ball in the middle on an inside X and Charlie Koleszar put it away on an over on set point.
Hagenah had eight of his match-high 21 kills in the set.
“Especially our sideout offense,” Timberwolves senior setter/opposite Cody Krohn said of the impact of resiliency since last month. “If we’re spreading the ball around, especially with both of our setters, their middles don’t know where to go and we can get our hitters in 1-on-1 situations.”
Canyon Crest Academy, playing with a sick setter in Justin Zhang, was led by junior opposite Henry Garewal, who finished with 14 kills. Junior outside hitter Andrew Chen chipped in with 11 kills.
“I’m a big believer in cross-training and in fighting with what you have,” Ravens coach Tucker Hargraves said. “We’ve had adversity, but that’s a reason why we’re here. At the end of the day it’s a serve and game. Sometimes you do well in those areas, sometimes you don’t.”
Mission Vista has been in the championship match before, not particularly enjoying getting so close without the big reward.
But being able to hang a banner for the first time in program history is accomplished through many things, among them learning lessons.
“It’s just a great team,” Gardner said. “Their cohesiveness. Their bonding. They’re such a close team, and I think that makes a big difference.”
Meehan is a freelance writer.
