Courtesy of the Ventura County Star:
By Loren Ledin
Photo by Juan Carlo, Juan Carlo / Star staff
Camarillo High’s Shaun York, left,
tries to power the ball past Pacifica’s Alex Romero
during Thursday’s Pacific View League volleyball match.
It takes more than talent to win a league championship.
Tenacity and focus are crucial components, too.
The Camarillo High boys’ volleyball team exhibited plenty of both Thursday night, taking charge at the outset and stepping on the gas en route to a 25-18, 25-10, 25-18 sweep of visiting Pacifica in their Pacific View League matchup.
Jesse Flitt notched 30 assists, two kills and two blocks, Danny Reilly had 10 kills, five blocks and two service aces and Connor Hoybjerg finished with 10 kills as Camarillo improved to 2-0 in league and 1 overall.
According to coach Rob Vandermay, the Scorpions also may have taken a valuable step forward.
“That’s the most complete match we’ve played this season,” said Camarillo’s 14-year coach. “We’ve played matches against teams that aren’t as good as Pacifica, and we’ve struggled to put them away. One of our problems has been playing well in the first game, and not so well in the second game.
“Tonight, there was no letup by our players.”
That’s no accident, said Flitt, a junior setter. After finishing third in the Pacific View League a year ago — the program’s lowest finish in 10 years — the Scorpions have bigger things in mind this season.
“We want to win a league championship, and that means we’ll need to do well against Oxnard and Rio Mesa,” Flitt said. “Then we want to do well in the (CIF-Southern Section playoffs). Last year’s team tended to be separated in a lot of ways. We don’t have that problem this year. We’re very close as a team.
“We all hang out together, and that closeness shows up in how we play together.”
Reilly, a junior middle blocker, believes the Scorpions are making a concerted effort to retain their focus for entire matches.
“We’ve had times when we lost our concentration and gave up a number of points,” Reilly said. “Tonight shows what we can do when we keep our focus for the whole match.”
Camarillo found itself in tied at 11-11 in Game 1 before taking control with a 6-0 spurt. The Scorpions also took the last four points of the game, including kills by Garrett Carney and Flitt.
In Game 2, Camarillo built a 17-10 lead, then scored eight consecutive points to seal the game.
The Scorpions constructed leads of 16-8 and 22-15 in Game 3 before closing out the match.
Not only did Camarillo ride a balanced attack, it used a stellar defensive effort to hold off Pacifica.
The effort was epitomized by libero Jose Rojas on the very first point of Game 3 when he made a sprawling save on a kill attempt, then found his feet in time to make the kill. Rojas finished with seven digs.
Pacifica (3-4, 1-1) got eight kills and two blocks from Israel Ibarra and six kills and one block from Lubag. But the Tritons are still searching for consistency, according to coach Junior Mosones.
“We need to build chemistry, and that can only come from playing matches and working hard in practice,” Mosones said. “We’ve got three first-year starters, and another first-year varsity player.
“We’ve got some talent, but we haven’t played a lot of matches against teams like Camarillo. We know we’ve got work to do.”
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