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.
The Long Beach Wilson boys’ volleyball team shook off some early jitters Thursday night to defeat St. Francis 21-25, 25-19, 25-16, 25-19 in a first-round CIF-SS Division 2 playoff game.
The Golden Knights led a majority of the first set as senior Titus Rodz and company were able to take advantage of some early Bruins miscues and held off a late Bruins comeback to take the first set.
“We started off slow,” Wilson’s Will Morrison said. “We’ve done that a lot this season – that’s one of the things we got to work on. But, we talked about it in the huddle and just bringing it every single point. That really helped us to come together as a team.”
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Wilson got back to their brand of volleyball in the second set as Shayne Galura dished out 13 assists as he found his big three in Morrison, Ian Nolte and Marek Turner for 12 kills.
“Shayne is our guy,” Morrison said. “He’s our setter – he’s like the most important player on our team. We love him.”
Along with their power swings, Morrison and Turner combined for four aces as the Bruins held off a Golden Knight comeback to win the set 25-19.
Wilson continued to play fast in the third set jumping to a 15-9 lead and didn’t stop their on their way to a 25-16 win to take a 2-1 lead.
Galura finished the night with 46 assists while Morrison had team-high 14 kills. Turner finished the match with 13 kills and Nolte had 12.
“Our big guys were trying to do too much or go too hard early on,” Wilson coach Chris Ceballos said. “Sometimes we got too fast and we burn out.”
Wilson will look to get off to a fast start when they travel to Orange County to take on Santa Margarita next Wednesday.
“They’re a good team,” Ceballos said. “They’re well coached, all their players play club. It’s going to be a tough game, their used to being in big games like that because of the Trinity League. They’re going to be ready to go. We just got to get our minds right and make sure we’re confident.”
