Prep roundup: Leigh, Valley Christian, Monta Vista capture CCS boys volleyball titles

Boys volleyball

Leigh 3, Bellarmine 2

Leigh defeated Bellarmine 25-20, 21-25, 19-25, 25-16, 15-8 to take home the CCS Division I title. 

After going down 2-1, coach Jeff Argabright said Cooper Smith, Liam Popejoy and Xace Leem “got going and put a lot of out of system balls away.”

Leigh middles Jeremy Choi and Connor Chiu then got blocks late in the fourth and fifth sets to help secure the CCS title for the Longhorns. Setter Eric Wu also had a fantastic match. 

“I could not be prouder of the guys,” Argabright said in an email to the Bay Area News Group. 

Top-seeded Leigh defeated fellow Blossom Valley Athletic League teams Evergreen Valley and Branham in the previous two rounds to reach the final. No. 2 Bellarmine defeated Los Altos and Cupertino to set up the matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2. 

Leigh improved to 26-7, while Bellarmine dropped to 17-18. 

Valley Christian 3, Santa Cruz 1

The Warriors took down Santa Cruz 21-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-19 to capture the CCS Open Division championship.

Tyler Alden led the way with 19 kills, three blocks and two aces, while teammate Elan Taylor had 17 kills for Valley Christian. After getting 10 digs in the semifinal victory over Leigh, Andy Xu had a whopping 47 assists against Santa Cruz.

“We faltered a few times but fought back against the mental challenges that came with the nerves and excitement of the moment,” VC coach Moni Tautu told BANG in an email. “I’m proud of the adjustments that we made that worked in our favor.”

Seeded No. 3 in the top bracket, Valley Christian defeated Carlmont and then upset No. 2 St. Francis to reach the section title match. 

The final pitted the Warriors against Santa Cruz for the fourth time this season, Valley Christian only winning one of the first three. Valley Christian’s two victories against Santa Cruz are the Cardinals’ only losses of the season. 

Valley Christian improved 31-10, and Santa Cruz slipped to 38-2. 

Monta Vista 3, Aragon 0

Monta Vista swept Aragon 25-16, 25-19, 25-19 as the Cupertino school won the CCS Division II title, the program’s second section championship in three years. 

Praneel Shah led the team with 36 assists, and Elijah Kang and Henry Hu used those setups to combine for 25 kills. 

Varchas Athreya had four solo blocks, and Rahul Pothenini had 10 digs for the Matadors.  

“Team played one of our best all-around matches of the year – serving, serve receive and hitting,” coach Paul Chiu told BANG. “Probably one of our best blocking games of the year.”

The top-seeded Matadors went the entire playoffs without dropping a set, sweeping Burlingame and Carmel before dispatching Aragon. No. 2 Aragon easily beat Saratoga in quarterfinals before squeaking by Monterey 3-2 to advance to the championship. 

Monta Vista improved to 19-13 and Aragon dropped to 31-4. 

Track and field

Two runners broke Taiwan Jones’ 16 year-old meet record in the 100-meter dash at the North Coast Section Tri-Valley meet on Saturday. The former NFL running back ran the event in 10.64 seconds in 2008. 

Acalanes’ Princeton-bound Paul Kuhner obliterated the old standard with a 10.36 time to set the new record. Kuhner’s new time was also the fastest in California this year, beating Los Alamitos’ Devin Bragg by 00.01. De La Salle’s Jaden Jefferson ran it in 10.51 to also move past Jones. 

Kuhner’s time tied Salesian’s Jahvid Best for the second-best in NCS history. El Cerrito’s Robert Stitts set the record at 10.31 last year. 

“I always felt like I could go faster and I was finally able to put it together today after 3 years of hard work,” Kuhner told the Bay Area News Group in a text on Saturday. “It helps to have such good competition in the area to push myself to be the best.”

10.36 #1 IN CA and wind legal, 2nd in NCS history! @KTPrepElite @jak_rtz @coachEsko @Coach_Flinn @SVerbit pic.twitter.com/eZzTBQ3imx

— Paul Kuhner (@paul_kuhner) May 11, 2024

Pittsburg’s La’Rico Tezeno came in third with a time of 10.62. The host Pirates got wins in both the boys and girls 4X100 relays. 

Kuhner also set the meet record in the 200-meter race, running it in 21.56 seconds to move past Chris Costa’s 23-year record of 21.58. Jefferson placed second, and Kuhner’s Acalanes teammate Trevor Rogers was third.