CIF NorCal boys volleyball: St. Francis, Mountain View advance to Division I final

MOUNTAIN VIEW – The road to California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Division I boys volleyball supremacy is paved between a pair of schools located fewer than two miles apart.

Top-seeded St. Francis and crosstown rival No. 2 Mountain View held court in the semifinals Thursday night to set up a much-anticipated rematch of the Central Coast Section championship game.

“I want revenge, man,” said Mountain View junior Logan Muir, whose Spartans fell in four sets at St. Francis last weekend after the teams split matchups during the regular season. “That would feel so good. I think we definitely can do it.”

Third-seeded Clovis West and No. 4 Buchanan, which are separated by only three miles in the Fresno area, were left to travel roughly three hours home after season-ending defeats.

St. Francis (37-2) acquiesced to a request for a one-hour shift prior to the first serve, then didn’t waste any time during a 25-19, 25-11, 25-16 sweep of an overmatched squad from Buchanan (28-11).

It was pedal to the metal after the opening set.

“That’s what we were saying in our timeouts, ‘Don’t take the foot off the gas,’” said St. Francis senior Ethan Watson, a 6-foot-8 middle blocker bound for Pepperdine.

St. Francis junior Jack Ebertin, a 6-5 outside hitter and USC commit, closed out the second set with a vicious swing down the line, while NYU-signee Jerry Feng – a 6-2 outside hitter – kept applying pressure in the third set.

• More photos: CIF NorCal Division I boys volleyball semifinals
• Division III: Bishop O’Dowd rallies to oust unbeaten Lathrop

“Sometimes it’s crazy to think that we have more Division I players on the court than not,” Ebertin said. “But I think Coach (Jonah) Carson has done a great job of bringing in talent and getting everyone better.”

Carson was not there to see the action.

Neither were five other Lancers, including sophomore Matthew Li, a 6-8 middle blocker who’s been out due to health-and-safety protocols since the morning of the CCS finals.

Also, injuries such as concussions and a detached retina kept St. Francis from deploying a regular rotation throughout, but it doesn’t appear to be much of a detriment at the moment.

“Everyone stepped up,” Ebertin said. “We haven’t really known sometimes who’s going to be there, who’s not going to be there, but everyone is ready to compete. And we have faith in anyone who is coming off the bench.”

Thursday night actually felt like the Lancers fed off their depth, considering nine players were unavailable for the quarterfinals.

“Everyone on this team is confident in their ability to win,” Watson said. “We play against each other every day in practice and each side has an equal opportunity to win, so people are prepared when they get on the court.”

St. Francis assistant coach Cade Nethercott attributes the success through such trials and tribulations to the players’ resiliency and malleability.

“One of the real secret sauces of a team like this is the longer they’ve been playing together – we only graduated one kid last year – it builds so much trust and confidence among them,” Nethercott said. “They know what to expect from the guy standing next to them.”

Mountain View got a little more than it bargained for during its semifinal against Clovis West, which lasted over two hours and went the distance as the Spartans prevailed 25-19, 23-25, 24-26, 25-21, 16-14.

“We didn’t give up, even when we were down,” said Mountain View co-captain Troy Kelsch, the team’s setter. “And we managed to pull through.”

The Spartans (33-2) were also without the services of their head coach, Katie Johnson, along with senior Adrian Heath, a 6-4 middle blocker.

Clovis West (41-3), which swept its three meetings with Buchanan, tussled for the chance to travel to Mountain View once again on Saturday.

It nearly erased a 20-11 deficit in the fourth set and jumped out to a 7-4 edge in the deciding set, forcing the Spartans to call a timeout.

“I think it was mostly mental,” Kelsch said of a series of unforced errors. “Once we were able to bounce back, nobody could stop us.”

Mountain View juniors Noah Isaacson and Kyle Deng provided a spark in the fourth set, but it was Muir and UC Santa Barbara-bound outside hitter Patrick Kane who powered the attack for most of the night.

After one of Muir’s multiple kills gave the Spartans a second match point, his deft touch on a soft-serve sent the ball over the net to an uncontested Kane.

A simple two-handed dunk onto an open spot clinched a spot in the NorCal Division I title game.

“I didn’t even have time to think too much,” Kane said. “It was a bang-bang play, able to put it away, and it was all Logan.”

He added: “We worked our whole season to get to this point and we got here. Now we just have to win one more match and close the deal.”

Mountain View bested St. Francis at a neutral site in a best-of-three match but lost both its trips to the private school located on Miramonte Avenue – its only two setbacks of the season.

First serve is scheduled for Saturday at noon.

“There’s no other people other than our team that believe we can beat St. Francis,” Kane said. “We can go full out and not worry about losing.”

“And even though it’s in their house,” Kelsch said, “that’s only a mile away. We’ll make it a home game for ourselves. We’ll bring all the fans and we’ll make them feel like they’re on the ropes.”

Elsewhere

In Division II, fourth-seeded Monta Vista dropped the first two sets and nearly rallied back before succumbing in a five-setter at No. 1 Jesuit – 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 19-25, 15-12. In the other semifinal, No. 3 Amador Valley was swept at No. 2 Woodcreek, 25-15, 25-22, 25-16. … In Division III, No. 3 Homestead upset No. 2 Santa Cruz on the road, 25-21, 13-25, 25-23, 25-20. … In Division IV, second-seeded Berean Christian couldn’t hold off No. 3 Lowell-San Francisco, which advanced to the title game after a 25-23, 26-28, 25-21, 26-24 contest.