BATTLE OF CHAMPIONS GOES TO LANCERS
When two champions face each other, the match is not supposed to be easy.
That’s how it was when Madison High visited nearby Parker on Thursday night with a berth in the Southern California Regional Division III boys volleyball final at stake.
Parker 3, Madison 1
Parker, the San Diego Section Division I champion, fought off a determined bid by Madison, the section’s Division II champion, in a 25-19, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19 victory.
That win earned the No. 2seeded Lancers a berth in the SoCal finals at 6 p.m. Saturday at No. 1 Capistrano Valley Christian.
“I don’t care who we play or whether it’s at home or on the road,” Parker junior Ryan Fox after registering the final kill of the match. “I just want to bring our best game to Saturday night.”
The win was the fifth straight victory for the Lancers as they snapped Madison’s 17-match winning streak.
But it was not an easy win. The score was tied eight times and the lead changed hands three times in the first set. Fox’s five kills led Parker.
The second set was close, but the score was tied just once at 1-1. Fox had four kills while junior Nick Goskowicz had six for the Lancers (26-12).
Madison, the No. 3 seed, fell to 33-4 but not without a fight behind senior Cole Hauser, who had 12 kills and three blocks in the last two sets.
The Eastern League champion Warhawks took the lead in the third set at 7-6 and led the rest of the way, although they held off a late charge by Parker.
“Madison is very athletic,” Parker coach John Herman said. “They can do things that tend to give you problems. I thought this match was what it turned out to be. The thing I like about our team is we played a lot of really good teams along the way.”
Parker emerged at the start of the fourth set, taking the lead for good at 5-4 on the way to an 18-9 lead. Madison closed the deficit to 22-18 behind Hauser. Then, Fox tallied his team’s last three points.
“It’s a big night and our team came through,” Fox said. “Their campus is pretty close to us so the atmosphere was great all night.”
Goskowicz led Parker with 16 kills while Fox added 14 kills and two blocks. The Lancers also got eight kills and two aces from freshman Matthew Sedano as they posted a slim 48-42 edge in kills.
Madison, which had a 15-7 edge in blocks, hurt itself with 14 serving errors. Hauser had 16 kills and nine blocks for the Warhawks, who also got nine kills and a block from Nate Valverde, seven kills from freshman Allen Sola and six kills and a block from Mason Churchill.
“No one comes into a match like this expecting to lose,” Fox said. “Madison had a lot of fight, but we have pretty good chemistry.”
Elsewhere, one other San Diego Section team advanced in the SoCal regional at the expense of another, as No. 5 seed Mar Vista pulled off an upset of top-seeded Grossmont in a sweep in Division IV. Mar Vista will meet Monrovia in the Division IV final Saturday.
In Division I play, No. 3 seed Cathedral Catholic took the opening set but was eliminated by No. 2 L.A. Loyola, 3-1. Two Division II teams were defeated as Sage Creek lost to Simi Valley Royal 3-1 and Westview lost to Upland in straight sets.