The562’s coverage of high school volleyball in 2023-24 is brought to you by the MLP’s Bay Area Breakers.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2023-24 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
Wilson boys volleyball is working through some midseason jitters as the Bruins adjust to lineup shuffling and welcome back some key players from injuries.
That was no different Tuesday night as the Bruins mounted a comeback after dropping their first set to Millikan during a 20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 Moore League victory for Wilson.
“We’re three games into the league and we’ve played about a dozen matches and we still don’t know who we are,” Wilson coach Chris Ceballos said. “We’re just coming off major injuries from our setters. One just came back.”
While the Bruins may have looked out of sync for much of the first set, the Rams capitalized in a close battle and mounted a comeback after trailing 16-11 after Marek Turner hammered home a big kill forcing a timeout by Millikan.
“They were having trouble getting into a rhythm and we took advantage of it with some good heads up plays,” Millikan coach Matt Johnson said. “And then just kind of got overpowered.”
The Wilson trio of Marek Turner, Ian Nolte and Will Morrison took turns throughout the next three sets of the match to overpower the Rams as the Bruins’ size proved to be a tough matchup.
In the third set, Turner took over finishing eight of his 17 kills to give Wilson a two-set advantage.
“This was all about consistency,” Turner said. “We’re getting our setters back after he broke his hand. So, it was his first game back— so he did a good job setting the ball high and we were able to put away the balls.”
Alongside Turner, Nolte had 12 kills and Morrison had 13 for the Bruins.
Millikan will be back in action on Wednesday against West Torrance and Wilson is at Jordan on Thursday.
