Mater Dei grabs spot in Division 1 final

Momentum can swing in a hurry in rally scoring. It could have happened to Mater Dei in Tuesday's CIF-SS boys volleyball semifinal against visiting Westlake.

The Monarchs had made it look easy in the first two games, but then Westlake found its groove in the third game.

How would Mater Dei respond? Quite impressively, in fact.

The Monarchs (27-3) shook off the loss and put the finishing touches on the match with a complete dominating fourth-game performance, to advance to the finals with a 25-12, 25-14, 22-25, 25-11 victory to advance to their first CIF final appearance since 2009.

The Monarchs have never won a CIF title.

Mater Dei entered on a high, coming off of its five-game upset victory over Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach in the quarterfinals and it carried over at the outset against Westlake.

"We came out ready to go," Mater Dei middle blocker John Zappia said. "We broke down a little bit in Game 3 because we got a little nervous, but in Game 4, we refocused and got it done."

The Monarchs will face Trinity League rival Santa Margarita on Saturday at Cypress College at 7:30 p.m.

Zappia and the John Henry, the other middle, turned in big performances for the Monarchs. Zappia had 12 kills and Henry added nine.

"The key going in was if we passed well, then we could run the middle," Zappia said. "We usually run our offense through (opposite) Zach (La Cavera), so once we get both of us getting set well that's when everything opens up."

La Cavera led the Monarchs with 15 kills. Tucker Pikula had five kills and three aces.

"As soon as we saw what their tendencies were, we knew we were going to have a big advantage shoving the ball through the middle," Mater Dei coach Adam Cutrell said. "The first couple of games, all we wanted to do was shove the ball through the middle.

"Then we knew that would allow us to be one-on-one on the outside. At that point, that kind of threw them (Westlake) off balance. They didn't know who to block or where the ball was going to and gave us the advantage."

Also in Division 1

Santa Margarita 3, Thousand Oaks 0: Spencer Buckley had 15 kills and 10 digs and Ryan Baine had 12 kills, four aces and five digs to lead the top-seeded Eagles (32-3) to the 25-19, 25-18, 25-16 road victory.

The Eagles have yet to lose a game in the playoffs.

Mitch Vallis had 10 kills. Andrew Quirk had 15 digs and Taylor Hammond had 41 assists.

When the Eagles and the Monarchs meet Saturday, it will be the fourth time this season.Santa Margarita swept Mater Dei, 25-22, 25-18, in the semifinals of the O.C. Championships, March 19.

In the first Trinity League meeting, April 14, the Eagles again swept the Monarchs, 25-19, 25-18, 25-16.

However, the Monarchs returned the favor in the final match of the regular season, sweeping the Eagles, 27-25, 26-24, 25-20.