SUN VALLEY — A dynamic outside attack powered the Royal boys volleyball team to a victory over Village Christian in the CIF Southern Section playoffs Saturday night.
Royal defeated the Crusaders in four sets, 25-17, 29-27, 20-25, 25-22, to clinch a spot in the Division 4 championship game.
Royal will play Sunny Hills for the title on Friday or Saturday at a time and location to be determined.
The Highlanders (16-10) served aggressively and played solid defense while their powerful outside hitters fired away against the Crusaders (22-10).
Royal was led by juniors Grant Herzer and Donnie Fleming. Herzer had a match-high 23 kills and Fleming finished with 22.
“Grant and Donnie are very seasoned, as well as Vaughn (Rizzo),” Highlanders coach Ryan Moberly said. “When they swing high and they are willing to get that back three feet of court, they’re really unstoppable. There’s no block that is going to dominate them.”
Fleming also had three aces and a trio of blocks.
Royal got off to a solid start in set one but trailed for most of set two.
The Highlanders trailed by five points midway through the game before both teams battled for side-outs in a long deuce set. Royal faced set point three times but answered the call each time before a Village Christian hitting error gave Royal the set.
Fleming was a big factor in the second game with 10 kills, but it was for Moberly to watch. The set was an emotional roller coaster with four deuces and eight service errors by the Highlanders.
“I was a player and nothing is more stressful than coaching,” Moberly said. “I would rather be a player. I never stressed out as a player, but as a coach, yeah, I’m a mess.”
“We got down early,” Moberly added. “And every time that happens, it’s always like ‘Hey you guys aren’t going to get all back in one swing or one block. We have to be willing to grind, chip away at the lead, side-out and play disciplined defense.’ ”
The Crusaders never trailed in set three and forced a fourth set.
The Crusaders’ block added five solo stuffs in the third game, slowing down Herzer and Fleming while also giving the home team some momentum.
Village Christian finished the match with eight blocks.
Royal built up a lead it never lost in the fourth set. Village Christian made it close but a pair of late, clutch kills from the right side and a match-point kill from Herzer ended the contest in four sets.
Rizzo finished with eight kills.
Moberly also praised the team’s setter, Micah Park, who ran the offense with ease as he totaled 50 assists.
“In my opinion, we have not seen a better setter anywhere,” Moberly said of Park. “So he deserves a lot of credit. He had a tremendous night. Nobody knows where he’s going, so we get a lot of one-on-ones, and that makes our hitters look great.”
Village Christian also boasted a pair of high-flying junior outsides. Juniors Alex Kazaryan and 6-6 Danny Franco each added 14 kills. Kazaryan had three blocks.
“We knew that they had two really good outsides,” Moberly said. “So our whole game plan was to try to get them out of system and serve tough. We missed a lot of serves as a result, because we’re trying to get them out of system, but we did a good enough job to get them out of system… They had a great game, very, very tough, and they played with a lot of heart. They were not easy to put away.”
The Highlanders have battled injuries and a tough schedule, but now they find themselves headed for a CIF-SS final.
“It’s just about desire and heart and just that ability to kind of compartmentalize, because there’s going to be highs and lows in every match,” Moberly said. “It’s about keeping composure and understanding that they will have momentum from time to time. And then it’s time to respond and shorten the amount of spans where you’re giving up bunches of points. If we can do that, then I like our chances. So we’ll see how it goes.”
