OCEANSIDE — When Bridget Salas began the boys volleyball program at Tri-City Christian two years ago, she did it with optimism, a build-from-scratch approach and exactly zero players with volleyball experience.
To set the tone for this season, the Eagles began by losing 12 of its first 13 matches.
But something happened toward the end of March.
The Eagles found confidence. They found their groove. And they also finally got their basketball athletes from their state title-contending team.
Dream fulfilled.
Sixth-seeded Tri-City Christian used a balanced attack and service pressure to make the remarkable turnaround complete with a 25-22, 25-17, 26-24 sweep over Chula Vista Learning Community Charter in Thursday’s CIF San Diego Section Division 5-AA championship match at MiraCosta College.
“I’m really proud of them,” Salas said. “So they all came in never having played and that kind of sparked a love of the sport for them and they just kind of ran with it.”
The third-seeded Eagles (15-12) stayed in control in each set. In fact, TCC was ahead almost the entire match until the Cobras (13-11) made a late charge in the third set.
Senior outside hitter Joel Valverde, who had a match-high 10 kills, said that was essentially by design.
“Our team is really a family, and so we’re really good at picking each other up and having that next ball mentality,” Valverde said. “We all push each other to be better. We all know that each one of us could get our own points, and we’re very unselfish.”
Sophomore middle blocker Timmy Lischio added eight kills and three stuff blocks, senior outside hitter Jack Busch had six kills, three aces and three stuff blocks, and sophomore Vaughn Kuder added five kills and two aces for the Eagles.
The fifth-seeded Cobras, who were also in their first CIF title game, got eight kills each from senior outside hitters Santiago Rodriguez and Ani Castillo, who also had three aces. Senior libero Yahir Garcia added four aces as the Cobras continued to fight back from the service line.
It wasn’t the finish they wanted, but a journey begun four years ago by coach Denise Lopez with a bunch of freshmen who hadn’t played before isn’t a bad ending to get to the championship match.
“I think in the first two sets, they were just really, really nervous, and I feel like they weren’t able to shake it out until the third set,” Lopez said. “But I’m just really proud of them because this is the first time in history that our boys volleyball team has ever made it past the first round.”
