The562’s coverage of high school volleyball in 2025 is brought to you by the MLP’s Bay Area Breakers.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
It’s often said that a single great player can carry a team, but it takes a great team to defeat one. Long Beach Poly proved that point on Thursday night, relying on its seasoned roster of 11 seniors to overcome a dazzling two-dozen kill performance from UCLA commit Marek Turner en route to a four-set win over visiting Wilson. Poly won 25-8, 25-27, 25-18, 25-20.
It’s just the second Moore League loss for Wilson in its last 45 league matches dating back to 2020. The last time the Bruins lost a league match was last year in their first matchup against Long Beach Poly before finishing the season 10-1 and Moore League champions.
“We try to tell the guys as coaches, ‘Last year was last year. This is your year’’” said Poly coach Sidney Davidson. “We have 11 seniors here and they’re all leading the team and that’s one thing I’m very proud of. They’re self determined. I try to guide them but they’ve taken the initiative on themselves to say ‘Hey, we need to try to win the league,’ and that’s all started at practice.”
After a sloppy five-set win over Millikan two days prior, Davidson said he preached to his team the importance of starting quick in Thursday night’s matchup. Every bit of his message was received by the Jackrabbits in a 25-8 opening set, a dominant period that was capped off by an 8-0 service run by setter Ryder Tuaolo.
“I was just trying to be a good player to my teammates,” said Tuaolo, who also says he’s been working hard on his serve. “I’ve been staying late after practices and going in like an hour early just to go serve for an hour. It was a really good night for me.”
“We couldn’t repeat what we did on Tuesday,” Davidson said. “They had a focus and they were determined which was all that we talked about which was no slow starts. We gotta make our serves and if we’re servicing we gotta nail the first pass and slide-out right off the bat.”
Tuaolo enters his senior campaign having battled through various injuries throughout the course of his high school career. This year is his first year fully healthy, which has allowed him to play a more versatile playstyle outside of your typical setter. Tuaolo used that skill set to rack up a handful of kills at opposite on Thursday night, receiving sets from opposite/setter Jackson Trunnelle.
“He had a full club season and a full high school season to this point, I mean his first couple of years he was banged up,” Davidson said of Tuaolo. “I didn’t realize he was going to grow taller and he started becoming a force in practice swinging it so I said hey, when we get stuck in certain rotations we’re gonna use him.”
The second set is where USA volleyball’s Marek Turner came alive, who was hard to miss for most of the game. The 6-foot-3 Turner racked up ten kills in the second set alone, finding his way from both the backline and left side of the court.
“We wanted it, we wanted that set. It was more energy and everyone realized we were in the game and could play hard,” Turner said. “I just tried to pick [my teammates up]. Just making sure they’re smart and just playing smart volleyball.”
“Oh my gosh,” Davidson sighed when asked if there’s any way to stop Turner. “You can’t. We can try to make changes but he’s gonna get his. We understand that. He’s a great player and you can’t take anything away from that, we just couldn’t make the other guys score and beat us.”
The Jackrabbits relied on their senior talent down the stretch and put together a pair of strong sets to close out the match. Senior hitters Jackson Trunnelle, Matthew Tsao and middle KJ Hill all came on strong to close the match and combined for 18 kills in the final two sets.
“A lot of our underclassmen have stepped up which has made me step up even more,” said Tsao. “It’s really helped me realize how much depth our team has and having that depth is really a comfort to take big swings and big risks knowing that there’s people to back you up.”
“Being a mmiddle it’s a lot of love and a lot of hate playing the position but just hearing the gym erupt after a kill or a block and hearing my team go crazy after a good touch or a good kill just fills me with so much pride and pushes us to play better,” added Hill.
Poly will look ahead to its matchup against Lakewood on Tuesday meanwhile Wilson will be at Cabrillo. The pair will match up again at Wilson on April 8.
“Its hard but it showed us where we’re at,” said Turner of moving forward. “It’s a good loss. It hurts but it’s a good loss.”
