Mateo Fuerbringer leads Mira Costa boys volleyball into CIF State championship match

The Mira Costa boys volleyball team has a chance to add to its storied history.

Last season, the Mustangs captured the first ever CIF State championship after winning CIF Southern Section and CIF Southern California Regional titles.

The Mustangs (36-2) will attempt Saturday to win the second official CIF State Division I championship. Mira Costa will face Northern California champion Northgate (37-1) of Walnut Creek in the final at 4 p.m. at Fresno City College.

Northgate has dropped just nine sets all season and its only loss came in a best-of-three match in a tournament.

Mira Costa swept Loyola in the CIF-SS Division 1 final and then prevailed in a five-set thriller against the Cubs in the regional final. The Mustangs lost one best-of-five match all season, which was a loss to Redondo Union in five sets on March 26.

Going into every match, the Mustangs expect to have an advantage with junior outside hitter Mateo Fuerbringer. Last season, Fuerbringer was on a senior-heavy roster, but he still found ways to impact the match. This season, he is the impact.

"That's a generational talent," Mira Costa coach Greg Snyder said of Fuerbringer after the CIF-SS final. "I can't remember a better high school player that I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of very, very talented high school players.

"The person, I would think I would compare him to is T.J. DeFalco (Huntington Beach), and I only saw him play once, so that's not really a fair comparison, but I think Mateo's better."

DeFalco led Huntington Beach to three consecutive CIF-SS and CIF SoCal Regional championships (2013-15) and to back-to-back 40-0 seasons.

Fuerbringer, who is committed to UCLA, has more than filled the big hitting role this season.

"He's always had the IQ," Snyder said. "Now, you give a kid like that tremendous power on top of that, there's no answers.

"He was great (his) freshman and sophomore year, but he played more of an intelligent game, look for open spots …Now he's got the IQ and just the brawn and that's just such a deadly combination, and I think you see it every time we come out on the court. There is no bad game for Mateo."

Fuerbringer's growth also came in the leadership aspect.

"I'm like more of a leader than last year," he said. "Last year, we had a lot of good guys, but this year, I was the main option. So I knew I had to step into that role. We come out, work hard and we keep fighting."

Fuerbringer was recently selected to USA Volleyball's U-21 national team. The 24-man roster will meet in Colorado Springs, June 12-21. The final 14 players on the roster will then represent the U.S. at the U21 Pan American Cup that will be held June 21-29 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 10:27 AM.