NEWPORT BEACH — The Huntington Beach boys volleyball was on the verge of accomplishing something it hadn’t done in nearly a decade, so the Oilers had to make it special.
With their win over Newport Harbor, 25-21, 12-25, 25-18, 25-21, on Friday night, the Oilers improved to 10-0 in the Sunset League play and won the league title outright for the first time since 2016.
After the Oilers’ win over Edison on Wednesday that clinched a share of the league crown, they had T-shirts made to commemorate the feat.
Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti made sure his players gathered near the net after the match so they could get a photo op in their new shirts.
“We had the shirts printed once we won the league,” Pazanti said.”And then, they just happened to come in today, so I figured, let’s give these guys something to go out there (with) a few days off before we come back to practice during spring break, you know, celebrate it right.”
Pazanti, who led the Oilers to a CIF-SS finals appearance and a regional championship in 2021, reflected on how difficult the journey has been to earn the right to become league champions.
“Like I said, I think the other day, when we clinched the share on Wednesday, it’s a tough league,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been one of the top teams in CIF for the last six, seven, eight years and still haven’t won a league title, so it’s always good to get a win in this gym.”
“I mean, you know, the ceiling’s different, the crowd’s different, the gym has set up as different, so you know and they played harder, you know, they played really hard,” he added about Newport Harbor’s home-court advantage.
The Oilers’ attack has been spearheaded by sophomore outside hitter Logan Hutnick and junior opposite Ben Arguello all season long but Pazanti credited junior outside hitter Colin Choi as well.
“The unsung hero every night is Colin Choi,” Pazanti said. “I mean, he does all the little things and then, he’s one-on-one a lot when he gets his sets, he takes advantage of it. It’s basically with him and (Aiden) Atencio, it’s like having a second libero out there when he’s in the back row, cause he’s such a great passer/defender but he can score.”
Pazanti also mentioned that last season’s challenges helped shape the team this year.
“I think everyone kind of thought last year was our year, right?” Pazanti said. “We had the opportunity, we had the talent level, you know, and we lose (Bennett) Tchaikovsky early in the year to an injury and we still had a great season. But I think everybody outside the gym at Huntington maybe underestimated us (this season) because we lost some guys that have been pretty influential on the program.”
“Tchaikovski, (Aidan) Dubno and (Jake) Pazanti, all three of those guys, were three-year starters on varsity and did a lot for us,” Pazanti said. “So you throw Kai Gan into Jake’s spot, you throw Ben Arguello into Dubno’s spot, and then, you know, you move Logan from the middle, and now you have a dominant outside hitter, which we haven’t really had in a long time. Where we just had a guy that if he if he’s playing his best, he’s gonna go over the block, he’s gonna score, he’s gonna do whatever he needs to do.”
“The development of (middle blocker) Justin Bolsombut allowed us to move him. We got the transfer with Kaegan Ramdhani, so we added a little bit of depth in the middle, which allowed us to move Logan and Logan’s done a great job.”
Pazanti hopes playing important postseason matches at home can make the difference this year.
“So we control our own destiny at this point now,” he said. “I mean, I think with the way the rankings are, we should be playing at home a lot of matches in the playoffs, so we’ll come back out, take a couple of days off, come back and get ready to play Fountain Valley a week from Tuesday.”