Castaic volleyball earns first league home win, sweeps Hart
Castaic Coyotes boys’ volleyball earned the program’s first home Foothill League win on Thursday after beating the visiting Hart Indians.
The Coyotes won in straight sets, 25-16, 25-20, 25-20.
Castaic served well and clicked right away to start the match. The team is hot off a tournament win in Las Vegas and seems to be playing more confidently and united, something coach David Chae had been wanting to see.
“They just played more unified and more as a team,” Chae said. “They had each other’s back. They wanted to cover for each other. They were all over the floor. I saw them stay together a lot better today than in games past.”
Coyotes middle blocker Quinn Broadwater led the team all around the court with eight kills, two blocks and three aces.
Broadwater powered the Coyotes ahead in the first set, where he added six of his 13 points.
Seniors Chris Apolinario and Riley Humphrey both also got some hard swings against Hart.
“We were just really just focusing on our blocking scheme and trying to make sure we get everything going quickly,” Humphries said. “We were a little slow at the start, but once we get rolling, we just keep going.”
Earlier in the season, the Coyotes struggled with consistent serving. However, Castaic fired off some tough serves and stayed clean in the category, with just five service errors in the match.
Hart moved the ball around a little better in the second game, as five Indians registered kills to just three players in the first set.
Freshman Aiden Wellins led Hart with match-highs of 10 kills and four blocks.
While Hart started operating a little smoother, so did Coyotes senior Bash Ramirez, who put away four of his six kills in the second set.
Some Coyote mistakes helped the Indians hang around but at 20-20 Castaic fired off five straight points to close out the second set.
The Indians’ energy never depleted, as Hart in no way acted or played like a winless team. Sideline chants, big on-court celebrations for points and teammates lifting one another up were all seen throughout the league contest.
Hart sophomore AJ Casillas kept his team in the third set with a pair of aces just barely outside the sideline. Wellins also kept the team thriving with five kills in the third game but more mishaps led to Castaic pulling away again, 25-20.
Hart and Castaic are two nearly polar opposite teams, as the Indians returned just one player from last year’s CIF championship year while the Coyotes returned all 12 players in their building year.
Hart boasts a ton of talent with some big swings, serves and sets, but the lack of experience has led to the team’s season going astray.
Mary Irilian took on the job of rebuilding the program into a CIF contender and has seen her young team grow immensely.
“The lack of experience is driving some of the inconsistency and moments in games where we are rolling really well but then we have one or two mistakes that kind of sets us off trail,” Irilian said. “So we’re just learning to overcome those ... A lot of our season’s been, they push and often win a set or get close to winning. Then we struggle in the remaining part of the match. So we’re trying to build on that.”
Irilian is nonetheless excited for the future of the Hart boys’ program as her varsity team will return several sophomores while a promising junior varsity team is gearing up for a promotion next season.
“I really like (the) JV group. They’ll make a really great addition to varsity next year and with only losing two seniors, it’s going to be a large varsity group next year, which is great,” Irilian said. “Our freshmen are actually really a great group of kids, too, that really are invested in the sport and are reaching out trying to find out club information. So I think it’s moving along pretty well, despite our record.”
Chae also had nothing but praise for the young Hart team.
“(Hart’s) outsides are really tough to cover,” Chae said. “We were trying to trap and stack block them. We knew they were gonna get set a lot, but for some reason, they knew how to hit around us. They’re going to be really good. They’re really good players. They know how to pass and they have different shots. They could win in so many different ways.”
Castaic is still aiming high despite its lackluster league record. The Coyotes still feel they’re a playoff team but have again stumbled in another war of Foothill League play. The team has now won six straight matches since Las Vegas and is looking to play more than just the role of spoiler to close out the season.
“We feel like we’re up there now,” Humphries said. “We’ve got some confidence going. Vegas was a stretch of like seven games but we know we need to keep going. We won all of those and then bringing it back home where we’re feeling like we’re up there right now on cloud nine. We could take anybody.”
Chae’s team is tough and has shown resilience through a lot of lumps these past few seasons. The coach feels the team’s tournament hardware validates all the hard work they’ve put in but a shot at the playoffs couldn’t hurt.
“Our league is really tough, no one was nice to us,” Chae said. “Everybody just played their hardest against us but what I’m proud of is these guys, just kept enduring and kept coming to him to practice, just hungry and more motivated. The results didn’t really matter to them.
Both teams return to Foothill League play on Tuesday in search of a big win. Irilian and the team know they’ve been capable of winning plenty of games this season and will look for their first on Tuesday at West Ranch. Castaic will also hit the road in need of an invaluable win over Canyon. Both matches are slated for 5:30 p.m.
“If we can close these next two out, we’re hoping to look for a playoff shot,” Humphries said. “We know we can get it done. I just hope for the best of this team. I love getting to watch everyone grow and to bond together. I just hope for the best when it all ends.”