Huntington Beach Beats Corona Del Mar in CIF SoCal Regional Semifinal, Sets up Rematch with Mira Costa (2025)

Huntington Beach – Elmer Combs Gymnasium

The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team overcame a slow start to take down Sunset League rival Corona Del Mar 23-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21 on Thursday at Huntington Beach High School in the CIF SoCal Division 1 Regional Semifinals.

By defeating the Sea Kings a third time this season, the Oilers advance to the Regional Finals where they will play Mira Costa on the road on Saturday. The Mustangs swept Newport Harbor in the other SoCal Regional Semifinal 25-17, 25-12, 25-14.

The opening set saw Huntington Beach lead 16-12 only to see Corona Del Mar use a 5-0 run to force the home team into a time out. The Sea Kings led 24-21 and despite a comeback attempt from the Oilers, they took the set 25-23 off a missed serve from the Oilers, who also failed to register a block in the opening set.

“A really big part of the game was our cover on our offense. In the first set, there were a lot of missed cover balls and once we got those down, we were able to make rallies longer and go from there,” Huntington Beach middle blocker Nick Ganier said.

The Sea Kings came into Thursday’s match without junior standout outside hitter Ben Brown, who suffered an ankle injury in Tuesday’s first round regional playoff win over Carlsbad.

Huntington Beach jumped out to a 10-5 in set two lead as it held the lead throughout most of the set. Corona Del Mar got within two points, but couldn’t get any closer, as the Oilers took the set and tied the match at 1-1.

Huntington Beach led 11-6 in set three and were in full control, as their blocking really started to flourish. Eventually, the Oilers ended the set winning 25-15 to lead the match 2-1.

With their season on the line, the Sea Kings led 6-5 in set four only to see Huntington Beach use a 5-0 run to lead 10-6.The lead ballooned to as many as eight and eventually, the Oilers had match point at 24-19.

Corona Del Mar dodged two match points and forced Huntington Beach into a time out at 24-21. But on the next point, Colin Choi ended the match with a kill on the left side, punching the Oilers’ ticket into the Regional Finals.

Logan Hutnick and Ben Arguello led Huntington Beach with 16 kills each while Choi added 14 kills. Ganier added seven kills while Choi and Arguello chipped in three blocks each.

“I think everyone did a great job of doing their own job. Logan was super authentic, Ben played super consistent and Nick was there in those tough times we had to side out,” Huntington Beach setter and Harvard Men’s Volleyball commit Kai Gan said.

Corona Del Mar was led by Hunter Hanneman led the Sea Kings with 14 kills while Brady Gant added nine kills. Daniel Booker chipped in four kills and six blocks while Jack Robinson and Brogan Glenn, who primarily plays libero but was moved to the outside hitter position due to Brown’s injury, each had six kills.

Despite the loss, the Sea Kings had a fantastic season, finishing second in the always-tough Sunset League, which had six out of seven teams make the playoffs. Their future is bright with all but one of its starters returning next year.

The Oilers, who did not lose at home once this season, advances to the CIF SoCal Regional Division 1 finals and will play at  Mira Costa on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Mustangs have beaten the Oilers in both meetings this season, as the winner advances to the CIF State Finals, which’ll be played on Saturday May 31 at Fresno City College.