Santa Cruz caps historic postseason with first state championship | Boys volleyball
FRESNO - For the CIF State Division III boys volleyball championship match, SoCal champ Central East took a nine-mile trip across town to Fresno City College. NorCal king Santa Cruz traveled much further, bussing 154 miles to the Central Valley.
Not surprisingly, the Bengals brought their fans in loads. But the Cardinals brought four big hitters, strong defense, led by senior libero Lucas Kamalani, and aggressive serving that broke the spirit of Central East in the Cardinals' 26-28, 25-14, 25-20, 25-18 victory Saturday.
With its win, Santa Cruz (29-13 overall) completed a postseason trifecta, earning the program's first state title after securing historic banner wins at the Central Coast Section and NorCal Regional tournaments.
"I'm stoked," Kamalani said. "We're the first (boys volleyball) team in school history to win a state title. It's awesome to be a part of that. We dialed in on our serving and tried to get them out of system. On defense, everyone was really scrappy."
Junior outside hitter/right side Matty Rayray led Santa Cruz with 18 kills and just five errors in 42 attempts, a .310 attack percentage. He added five aces. His kills, blocks and spirit were a huge part of the Cardinals' turnaround from a dead-even first set to three dominant sets for the victory.
"He is very dynamic," Santa Cruz coach Peter Edwards said. "A lot of fire, a lot of energy. He gets the team really going. He fires everyone up. And once we get going, we're hard to stop."
Success came with the trademark diverse offense beyond Rayray, with seven kills from senior outside hitter Charlie Hess, seven kills and four aces from junior outside/opposite Felippe Zacarias Melo and six kills from senior middle Guillermo Mazier. Every one of that quartet pounded balls down to the floor with power. On the balls that Central East could dig, they were often forced into free balls just to clear the net.
"I'm happy and proud," Rayray said. "We did exactly as we wanted and we executed really well. After the first set, we controlled ourselves and calmed down. The difference was our service pressure. Our serve receive was good enough and we kept the ball in the court."
Santa Cruz also shined at setting with 20 assists from senior Nathan Monroe and 19 from classmate Lucas Hansen. Kamalani paced the back row with 18 digs, Zacarias Melo had 10 and Hess had nine.
Central East (29-15) was led by senior opposite Jeremiah Phaysamone with 15 kills and senior outside/right side O'Shawn Roberts with 11. The stat sheet showed 10 serve receive errors for the Bengals compared to just one for the Cardinals.
"It feels great," Monroe said. "We bounced back after the first set. We pulled a blocker off covering tips to dig number 15 (Phaysamone, especially on the tight cross). We played very clean. We talked about moving them on our serves and they didn't pass well."
As Santa Cruz turned the tide and began dominating the match, the emotional outbursts from the bench, on-court players and their fans were the primary sound in the gym. Each Central East timeout resulted in joyous cheering and chest bumps on the Santa Cruz bench, while the large black-and-orange crowd put down their foam fingers and sunk in their seats.
By the end of the match, coach Edwards substituted liberally and the Cardinals enjoyed the historic moment. The Cardinals stormed the court following the final point, and remained a giddy bunch during the trophy presentation and post-match pictures with their new hardware.
"I thought we bounced back really well," Edwards said. "We went with our game plan. We served aggressively and got them out of system. Our serving would take out their middle option. Then we could get the block and the defense lined up on their outsides."
After barely dropping a tight first set, Santa Cruz jumped on top 8-2 in the second. Six aces led to a blowout victory. Rayray ripped three in a row, two with topspin rockets and then an off-speed short ball. On the offense, Rayray and Hess were scoring nearly at will.
"They (Santa Cruz) are a strong team," Central East coach Hue Lee said. "We couldn't capitalize (block) their outsides."
Zacarias Melo was on fire in the third set with five early kills, followed by a block of Bengals' power hitter Jeremiah Phaysamone. Rayray ended the set with two topspin serving aces, a blast that was shanked and a bullet that landed just inside the back line as the CE players stood and watched.
The Bengals had one last flurry in the fourth set, jumping to an early lead. Santa Cruz quickly erased that as Zacarias Melo fired three straight aces. With each, the Cardinals roared. A 14-1 SC run cemented the victory.
"It feels great," Zacarias Melo said. "Eight of our players are seniors. I'm super proud of everybody."
THE SCORES
CIF D-III State Championship
Santa Cruz 3, Central East 1
26-28, 25-14, 25-20, 25-18
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.