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 Huntington Beach’s Davis Gillett are teammates hope they will be celebrating after Saturday night’s regional final against Loyola.
Huntington Beach’s Davis Gillett are teammates hope they will be celebrating after Saturday night’s regional final against Loyola.
Damian Calhoun. Sports Newsroom Assistant.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Huntington Beach boys volleyball team had what amounted to a second senior night following Thursday’s CIF Southern California Regional semifinal victory over Buchanan of Clovis.

For the group of seniors (James Anastassiades, Davis Gillett, Blake Diamond, TJ DeFalco, Alex Wolf, Lucas DeVries, Ben Vaught and Josh Tuaniga), it would be their final match at home and fittingly, the Oilers won in three sets.

“It is a different feeling,” DeFalco said of playing his final match at home Thursday night.

The Oilers will put their 103-consecutive match winning streak on the line, for one final match Saturday when they face Loyola of Los Angeles in the Division I regional final at Cerritos College at 7:30 p.m.

DeFalco described the current run as “legendary.” Coach Craig Pazanti called it “amazing.”

The national record for consecutive victories is 112, set by Salem High of New Hampshire (2004-09).

“We’ve had different levels of players and teams and we’ve all come together and done what we’ve done for the last three years,” he said. “Everybody has been a great piece of this puzzle.”

Despite being selected to the preliminary roster for the U.S. for the 2015 FIVB World League, DeFalco will get a chance to end his high school career in style.

“(Coach John) Speraw said that I could finish the high school season then focus on training with them,” DeFalco said. “I get to finish what I started with the team.”

The first test for players like DeFalco and Diamond came in 2013 as sophomores. After losing to San Clemente in the finals of the Orange County Championship, the Oilers only lost four sets the rest of the season on their way for their first of three CIF titles.

Last year’s team dropped just six sets all season. This year’s team had lost just three sets in best three-of-five matches before last week’s CIF finals.

“I’m totally grateful for being the coach here, especially being an ex-player year and an assistant coach, to come back and have this going on at my alma mater is awesome,” Pazanti said. “It is definitely harder to get ready to go (in the regionals), but once we get on the floor, they play as hard as they can and you can’t ask for much more than that.”

No one best personifies that attitude than Diamond, the senior libero. He was brought up to the varsity level during their first championship run and has been a mainstay every since.

“I was watching the (CIF-SS final) broadcast and Paul Westphal said that’s the best performance by a libero he’s seen in high school,” Pazanti said. “He was that good, I thought on Saturday night, making plays, allowing TJ to get 41 kills, allowing us to get rhythm.

“He’s kind of split that position the last couple of years and this year, it has kind of been his role, even with Davis on the floor, it has been his role to be that starting libero and be the strength and backbone of our defense. He’s such a smart kid, a leader, and he’s meant a huge bunch to the steadiness we’ve had in serve-receive and the defense we’ve played lately.”

Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com