Instant classic! Bellarmine beats Mitty in epic five-setter, winning first CCS Open title since 2021
MOUNTAIN VIEW - Archbishop Mitty wasn’t going to hand Bellarmine its first Central Coast Section Open Division championship in five years.
Monarchs, the defending CCS Open champions,
But Mitty found its footing in the second and went toe-to-toe with the Bells the rest of the way, winning the second and fourth sets to force a fifth.
After four back-and-forth sets that featured too many runs to count from either side, huge swings producing crucial inflection points andplenty of timeouts to stop momentum, Bellarmine put the hammer down in the final frame, jumping out to a 14-7 lead and hanging on to win 15-10 and seal the CCS crown with a 3-2 match win.
The set scores were 25-16, 25-27, 25-22, 23-25, 15-10 in favor of the top-seeded Bells, who are back atop a section they have now won 15 of 28 years that a top-division CCS playoff has been contested.
"We all really wanted to win," said 6-foot-9 sophomore Luke Bosanac, a six-rotation phenom who is the tip of Bellarmine's collective spear. "But we had to find a reason to win. So for me, I really wanted to do it for the seniors. It’s their last ride, and this meant a lot to them. So I really wanted to use that and inspire that for the win."
Bellarmine (31-6) looked the part of the more inspired team early on, staggering third-seeded Mitty (28-8) with a 16-7 haymaker of a starting run right out of the gate.
The Monarchs made strides later in the opening set, cutting the deficit to four points to provide a brief glimmer of hope. But they really found their footing in a rugged second frame, going up 10-6 early and withstanding the Bells' relentless pressure to hang on for the victory in extra points.
"When we serve tough, we put a lot of pressure on them," Mitty coach Lacey Gera said. "They have some really good guys. I thought we competed a lot, but obviously at the end, things went not in our favor. But we’re the most competitive teams, and it’s fun playing them. Just wish it was a win. But again, super competitive battle. Just got to be better servers."
It was anyone's match from there as the teams traded epic rallies, thunderous kills and stunning digs to keep points alive.
After they got the lopsided opening frame out of the way, the closest margin of victory in a full-length set was three points.
"They’re a good team," Bellarmine coach Sam Wheaton said. "They didn’t play their best in the first set, and we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, and that it was going to be a battle. So we expected them to come out in that second set firing. I’m just proud of our boys’ response. We told them it wasn’t going to be easy breezy the whole time. Mitty’s going to fight back at some point; we got to be ready and respond."
Bellarmine responded quickly to the end of the fourth set, which finished with Mitty being awarded the set point after all four officials congregated to discuss what call to make on the play.
Yet the Bells looked the fresher and more focused team early in the fifth, and with a shorter set, that was it. Quinn Pershall and Lucas Do sealed it with an emphatic combination block on Bellarmine's fourth match point, sending a raucous Bells crowd into a frenzy in Mountain View.
"It means everything," Bosanac said. "This is probably the best we're gonna be for the next couple of years, so we really have to capitalize. We really have to want it, and I think we really showed that today.
"This literally means the world to all of us. This is what we worked so hard for. Day 1, this was our biggest goal, and we finally accomplished it. So it feels amazing."
Mitty was led by Oscar Klement with 19 kills, including multiple key finishes in the fourth set and the set point off the Bellarmine block touch. Antony Niu had 14 and Cyprian Gorgolewski added 11.
Ryan Barnes had 56 set assists and three service aces, and Lucas Dong added 15 digs.
Both teams' seasons will continue in the CIF NorCal regional playoffs beginning on Tuesday. Regional brackets will be released on Sunday.
Division I
No. 3 Aragon 3, No. 4 Mountain View 1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 25-22)
Raghav Vemulapalli led Aragon (31-9) with 13 kills as the Peninsula school knocked off Mountain View to win its first section title in school history.
The Dons lost in the Division II championship game in their only previous appearance in 2024. Cameron Ngai had 11 kills and Santiago Smirnoff added nine.
Mountain View (21-18) also advances to the NorCal playoffs by virtue of reaching the title game. Colin Ching led the Spartans with 13 kills, Kaio Icasiano had 11 and Mosiah Fruean chipped in 10.
Subscribe to our Bay Area Preps HQ newsletter for all our Bay Area high school sports coverage, including game analysis, scores, and everything you want to know about your Bay Area high school teams.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 8:35 PM.