Santa Cruz's monumental rally brings program's first NorCal title | Boys volleyball

SANTA CRUZ - A sounding fire alarm on campus delayed the start of the CIF Division III Boys Volleyball NorCal Regional Championship by an hour on Saturday.

Perhaps it was foreshadowing, because by the time the third set rolled around, the slow starting host Santa Cruz High Cardinals were en fuego.

After dropping the first two sets, the Cardinals pulled off a monumental rally for a historic, 21-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-11, 15-9 reverse sweep to earn their first regional title and advance to the state championship.

"It feels great," Cardinals outside hitter Charlie Hess said. "It's the first for our program. We put so much work into it."

Santa Cruz (28-13 overall) faces Central East (29-14) of Fresno for the state title at Fresno City College on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The No. 1 Bengals beat No. 6 Mission Bay of San Diego in five sets in the SoCal regional final on Saturday.

Over the final three sets, Santa Cruz outscored Mountain View 60-34. The Cardinals' block squelched the Spartans' powerful middle attack. The Cardinals' offense blasted away, scoring points at will. And the entire team was laying out on defense.

"We just woke up," libero Lucas Kamalani said. "They came out with a lot of energy. We locked in and everyone played their team role. We beat them in the serve and pass game. We felt this could be our last game. We're going to fight for this. We're going to show up for the crowd."

Matty Rayray led Santa Cruz with 26 kills and Hess added 17, with three blocks. Guillermo Mazier had 11 kills and six blocks. Felippe Zacarias Melo had 10 kills and zero hitting errors on 20 swings. Kamalani led the defense with 23 digs, Rayray added 13 and Hess had 10.

"It's amazing," Mazier said. "It feels so great. It took a lot of resilience and guts. We were going for every ball. Those last three sets, I've never seen our team want it so much. And I really want to thank my relatives in Paraguay for their support. It means the world to me every time I go out on the court."

Middles Colin Ching and Augie Kopp led Mountain View's attack early on, fueled by setter/opposite Tyler Berent. The Spartans rolled in the first set and erased a 15-9 SC lead in the second. At 20-20, Ching had three kills in a closing 5-2 run.

Energy was not the only thing that changed after the first two sets.

"Going down 0-2 was not fun," Santa Cruz coach Peter Edwards said. "We switched our outside hitters Matty and Charlie in the rotation and got different matchups. Give credit to Lucas for suggesting it. And we switched our middles. Numbers four and 22 were giving us a bad time. We swapped Guillermo and James (Bush) and got different blocking matchups. Once we had those switches, we had so much more confidence. We looked and felt like a different team."

In the third set, Santa Cruz ran off a 6-1 mid-set charge to take control. Hess was rocking, blocking Berent for a point, tooling the block for another and then bashing two more kills.

"We really locked in on defense," setter Nathan Monroe said. "We were fighting for every point. We put in every ounce of energy we had."

Mountain View had no answers as the Cardinals turned it up one more notch in the fourth set. SC opened with 10 straight points. Rayray was scoring in multiple ways during the burst, ripping an opening cross, and later rejecting back down two serve receive overpasses, courtesy of fierce Kamalani serves.

The Spartans appeared to regroup in the fifth set, jumping out to a 4-1 lead, courtesy of two block kills from Ching in the middle. But six straight Santa Cruz points showed the Cardinals were still in charge. Rayray went seam, adjusted mid-flight for a lefty kill and scored on a roll shot.

Santa Cruz, with two big Hess kills, nailed the door set shut with a closing 6-1 run for the win. The bench rushed the floor and the team celebrated with jumps, hugs and high fives. Reverse sweep and NorCal title.

"Credit to Santa Cruz for not giving up," Mountain View coach Josh Sullivan said. "We stayed in our system with our block and our defense but in sets three and four, that kinda disappeared. And it was hard to lock down their front row."

The Cardinals are elated for the opportunity to had to their historic postseason run.

"I don't know how to describe it," setter Lucas Hansen said. "It feels great because it's my senior year. We learned how to fight and how to come back. I really want to thank Coach Peter. We changed the way we were serving, but the big thing was our energy."

THE SCORES

Santa Cruz 3, Mountain View 2

21-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-11, 15-9

Up next: CIF Division III State Championship, Santa Cruz vs. Central East

When: Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

Where: Fresno City College

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 2:17 AM.