Sunny Hills boys volleyball finishes strong to beat Crossroads in semifinals

FULLERTON — After a four-year absence, the Sunny Hills boys volleyball team is going back to the CIF-SS finals.

The Lancers beat Crossroads in a tense five-set match, 25-23, 25-15, 17-25, 23-25, 15-7, in the Division 4 semifinals Saturday night at Sunny Hills High.

Sunny Hills coach Albert Soliguen, who led the team to a CIF-SS title in 2022, called it an emotionally draining match, although it did have a happy ending.

"There was a lot of anxiety and nervousness but I just tried to stay positive for my guys." Soliguen said. "The positive self-talk, the positive body language, just trying to keep them focused on the strategy and the goal and to make sure we’re practicing the systems that we do in these pressure situations."

The Lancers (22-14) will face Royal of Simi Valley in the final on Friday or Saturday. The date, time and location will be announced by the CIF-SS on Monday.

Sunny Hills took a 2-0 lead in the match by winning the first two sets, which were both tightly contested.

The Roadrunners (20-8) took the next two sets in similar fashion and forced a decisive fifth set.

Sunny Hills opened the final set by taking a 6-0 lead, but Soliguen refused to breathe a sigh of relief.

"The game’s not over and even though we had great momentum, we have to live point by point." he said. "We can’t think that we have it, even though it’s 6-0. So just staying on top and adding that pressure and, you know, put our foot on the gas pedal is important for guys and just making sure we’re capitalizing and staying focused with the game plan, the strategy, and we executed. That was most important."

Christian Lee had a match-high 27 kills for the Lancers and sophomore Owen Filadelfia added 17 kills.

"He’s my sleeper,” Soliguen said of Lee. “He’s an undersized hitter, but he’s so crafty with his shot selection. And we practice this all the time, especially against big blocks and what to do in those situations. So, he likes running those really fast sets and, you know, we can do that with Parker (Mesnik)."

Mesnik was credited with collecting match point on a service ace.

"Parker Mesnik, my senior setter, he started us off in that serving run in the fifth set," Soliguen said "We wanted to capitalize serving in areas where they were crowded, so we could disrupt their rhythm and flow, and it worked. It worked. So we got them out of system, and we just capitalized on those points."

With the Lancers so close to adding the second CIF-SS championship in program history, Soliguen reflected on the first title and the family ties from that team to the current squad.

"Some of my players had siblings on that squad." he said. "Owen, Filadelfia, his sibling, Logan, was a setter in 2022. And then Parker Mesnik’s brother Ryan was a sophomore outside in 2022. So there’s some ties."

Mesnick is looking forward to the opportunity to add to the program's legacy.

"It would mean everything,” he said. “It’s a great program. We worked hard for this, it’s like it’s a culmination of our efforts throughout the season. We’ve had our highs and lows, and we just keep on pushing right now."

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