Huntington Beach – The Huntington Beach High School Boys Volleyball team started off the CIF State Division 1 Playoffs with a 25-21, 25-23, 25-17 win over Newport Harbor on Tuesday at Huntington Beach High School in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Oilers (23-5) advance to the SoCal Regional semifinals where they will travel to play Loyola of Los Angeles on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Cubs beat The Bishop’s School of La Jolla 25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19 in another first round playoff match.

In the fourth meeting between the Oilers and the Sailors, this one was the shortest in terms of number of sets played.

The first set saw both teams tied throughout half of the set until Huntington Beach used a 3-0 run to turn a 13-13 tie into a 16-13 lead. The lead expanded to as much as five, as it eventually took the set 25-21.

“The guys [Huntington Beach] did a nice job of playing nothing spectacular, but just steady in that first set and it kinda led to us having a smooth ride tonight,” Huntington Beach head coach Craig Pazanti said. 

Pazanti made note that in the previous three meetings this season, Newport Harbor had won the first set in all those matches. 

The best chance for Newport Harbor to take a set and possibly extend the match came in set two.The Oilers led 16-15 only to see the Sailors use a 3-0 run to take the lead at 18-16.

“I just don’t think we were making enough plays on defense. There was a lot of opportunities that we had to transition balls for points when we were serving and we kinda let them hang around and then our 16-15 lead turns into an 18-16 deficit,” Pazanti said.

Huntington Beach used a 5-1 run to regain the lead at 21-19 forcing Newport Harbor into a time out. Despite needing two set points to claim the set, the Oilers took it 25-23 off a kill from Ben Arguello, giving them a 2-0 lead in the match.

“To our boys credit, they hung in there, they stayed pretty tough mentally and finished that set out,” Pazanti said.

The third set saw Huntington Beach get off to a fast start, leading 9-5. With a chance to sweep, the Oilers never gave the Sailors any chance to make a comeback, as they took the third set 25-17 and the match.

Logan Hutnick, a USC junior commit, led Huntington Beach with 19 kills, two service aces and a block while Ben Arguello added 12 kills. The two were recently named Co-MVP of the Sunset League.

Newport Harbor was led by Wesley Foell who had 10 kills while Zach DeMaio added eight kills and three blocks. Despite being in somewhat of a rebuilding year under Pat Eaton, who was in his first year as head coach with the team, the Sailors were a consistent top 10 team all year in the CIF-SS power rankings, dropping no lower than sixth.

Huntington Beach’s next opponent, Loyola, is someone it has already faced this season, as it will be the second meeting between the two. The Cubs beat the Oilers 25-23, 25-20, 25-27, 23-25, 15-10 on April 21 in both team’s regular season finale.