Mira Costa working to get back to CIF-SS final

The Mira Costa boys volleyball team returned a lot of familiar faces from last season's team.

Last season, one year after winning the CIF Southern Section and SoCal Regional titles, the Mustangs started a lot of sophomores.

“Some inexperience showed up at times,” Mira Costa coach Avery Drost said. “Everyone was in their first year starting on varsity. The good thing was a lot of guys, a lot of sophomores ended up playing major minutes.

“We took some major growing pains, but we thought it would look great for the future. We knew it would be a great lesson, but we had to keep our perspective on things.”

Mira Costa advanced to consecutive CIF-SS finals. In 2019, the Mustangs lost to Newport Harbor in four sets and in 2021, they defeated Newport Harbor in four sets. Last season, they lost in the semifinals.

So far this season, the Mustangs

are off to an 11-3 start overall and 2-0 in the Bay League.

Two of the losses (Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor) came with junior Tread Rosenthal and Victor Loiola away with the U.S. Boys U-19 team. The duo were away for most of this March with the U.S. U-19 team. The U.S. would win the Pan American Cup with Rosenthal earning tournament MVP honors.

Next week will be a big one for the Mustangs. First is a nonleague match against Mater Dei (Monday), followed by rival Redondo

(Wednesday at home) and another rivalry match Friday against Loyola (at LMU).

Mira Costa is fifth in this week's CIF-SS poll, behind Newport Harbor, Loyola, Beckman and Corona del Mar.

First look at the Pioneer

The Pioneer League championship race will be interesting to watch this season.

South Torrance is on the Division 1 and 2 watchlist at No. 19. El Segundo is fourth in Division 3and Wiseburn DaVinci is No. 1in Division 5.

El Segundo defeated South 25-19, 21-25, 25-22, 25-23 in their first match March 15.

South defeated Wiseburn 2830, 25-19, 25-19, 25-23 in the first meeting March 1.

Last season, the Wolves went 27-9 and 10-0 to win the Mulholland League title. The Wolves then advanced to the CIF-SS Division 6 semifinals.

This is the Wolves' first year in the Pioneer League.

Also, around the South Bay, Leuzinger is the top-ranked team in the Division 6 poll.