Trabuco Hills High School

  
Trabuco Hills Mustangs
Boys Volleyball!

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CIF Playoff Groupings - 2013 to 2015

The CIF office is proposing changes (in their April 2012 meeting) to the Divisional groupings for Boy's Volleyball for the next two year period.  The changes will move three current Division II leagues into Division I, and vice versa.  The leagues involved include . . .

Moving up to Division I:
Foothill League (Valencia Area)
Pacific Coast League (CdM, Irvine, Beckman, etc.)
Sea View League

Moving down from Division I to Division II:
Century League (Esperanza, Foothill, etc.)
Channel League (Santa Barbara Area)
Moore League (Long Beach Area)

For the full list of changes click on the following attachment:
CIF-SS Boy's Volleyball Playoff Groupings


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Loss to Corona del Mar

Our Mustangs run in the CIF playoffs ended this past Saturday (May 12) with a loss to Corona del Mar in three with scores of
19-25, 23-25,19-25

The Sea Kings were unable to stop Brandon Stoker who ended with 15 Kills on 27 Attempts, and setter Sean Nakada kept the Sea Kings guessing by distributing assists to Ryan Anselmo (OH) - 7 Kills, Ryan Southworth (OPP) - 3 Kills, and Andrew Samis (MH) - 3 Kills. Our serving also kept pressure on the Sea Kings with Ryan Anselmo, Ryan Southworth, and Sam Smith all recording Aces in the match. But, in the end, when the Sea Kings needed a point, their Stanford recruit Joe Ctvrtlik (S) would tee the ball up for two key offensive weapons in Parker Brown (OH) and UC Santa Barbara recruit Jack Reed (MH).

To read more about the match, go to the following story from the Daily Pilot:
CdM Boy's Volleyball Advances

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CIF-SS Division II: Going to the Quarter Finals

To advance to the quarter finals, our Mustangs had to play a solid game against the Paloma Valley Wildcats.  The team started strong and took the first set by a score of 25-14.  The first set had five players recording kills led by Brandon Stoker and Ryan Anselmo with 5 kills a piece.  The second set was much closer, but our Mustangs were able to get to 20 points first by pulling away at 16-16 with four straight points.  The set ended with a score of 25-22.  Middle Blocker Thomas Hansen had 3 kills on 3 attempts to keep Paloma Valley off-balance, while Ryan Anselmo recorded a set high 7 kills.  Libero Sam Smith continued his strong defensive play with 4 digs.  The last set Senior Brandon Stoker picked up his serving with 2 Aces, along with 8 Kills to lead the way to a 25-20 win for the match.

Our Mustangs must now face Corona Del Mar at their gym on Saturday, May 12 at 7:00PM.  Corona Del Mar is ranked 2nd in CIF Division II, so our team has its work cut out for them.  To see a video of Corona Del Mar playing Punahou earlier this year, click on the following link:

Corona Del Mar at Punahou 

On the same weekend, Corona del Mar played HBA (Hawaii Baptist Academy) at Punahou:

Corona del Mar vs HBA
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Second Round Opponent - Paloma Valley
@ Trabuco Hills 7PM!

Paloma Valley High School (Menifee, CA) will be the second round opponent for our Mustangs.  They have an impressive record of 23-4 overall and 10-0 in the Sunbelt League.  Coming out of their league in first place gave them a first round match up against Norco on Tuesday (May 9).  To read more about that Paloma Valley win, you can go to the following article in their local paper:

Press Enterprise - Paloma Valley Win

You can also get an early glimpse of our second round opponent by clicking on the link below:

Paloma Valley Highlights


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CIF - First Round Results

Our Mustangs had to travel nearly three hours to get to Lancaster where their first round opponent, Quartz Hill High School, calls home.  There was a sizable Trabuco Hills cheering section as the high desert heat started to fade into the night for the 7:00PM start.  The crowd was anxious, knowing the significant home field advantage for the Quartz Hill Rebels who didn't have to be cooped up in a bus for a long drive.  But, the boys seemed unfazed as the first offensive play was a 32 combination with the block following the middle, opening up the net for Brandon Stoker to thump the 2 ball for a kill.  The first set went smoothly with a comfortable lead that was protected by efficient hitting with a .500 attack ratio.  Brandon Stoker finished with 8 kills on 9 swings, and Sean Nakada had 12 assists on 22 attempts.  The Mustangs took the first set 25-16.

The second set was a back and forth battle to 15.  The team was not as crisp early in the set with some service errors and hitting errors giving the Rebels some hope.  But, for the last 10 points, the boys found the same efficienty as the second set and walked away with another 25-16 score.

With the drain of the long drive, and a comfortable two sets to zero lead, Coach Hollaway started a different rotation.  Senior starters, Brandon Stoker, Andrew Samis, and Sean Nakada watched from the bench as the line-up dominated by lower classmen took over the third set of the match.  The third set was led by Junior Ryan Southworth's five kills, and followed by Junior Brett Pettis' four kills.  The setting was aptly handled by Sophomore Cristian Rodriguez who dished out 10 assists to keep Quartz Hill off balance, and locking up the win by a score of 25-17.

The second round will be on Thursday, May 10.  We'll keep you posted as soon as we know the time and place.

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CIF Playoff Pairings

The CIF Playoff pairings have been released!  Our Mustangs will be playing an away match against Quartz Hill High School of Lancaster.  The match will be at 7:00PM on Tuesday, May 8.  The pairings for all 5 Divisions can be found on the CIF-SS website at the link below:

CIF-SS Website

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CIF Playoff Information

This is the last week of regular season volleyball for the CIF Southern Section.  Sea View league ended last week, giving our  Mustangs some time to prepare for their run into the CIF-SS Division II Playoffs.  The team has maintained a 6th or 7th place ranking since the beginning of the season.  In the last poll of the regular season, all five Sea View league teams are in the top 10 in Division II.  Our Mustangs will receive an automatic berth for being one of the top 3 teams in regular season, but #4 - Aliso Niguel and #5 - El Toro may also receive at-large invitations to the playoffs.

The playoff brackets will be released at 9:00 AM on Saturday May, 5 (corrected from 9AM on Sunday, May 6), with the first round match on Tuesday, May 8.  You can expect that we will be forced into a road game as the #3 seed from Sea View, but to get the latest information you'll have to go to the CIF Southern Section website by clicking on the link below:

CIF Southern Section Website

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OC Varsity - April 30th: Plays of the Week

Go to OCVarsity.com or click on the link below to see the top 10 plays of the week which includes a highlight of our Mustangs home match against El Toro.

Plays of the Week

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More Pictures!

I received a number of candid shots of the teams that can be viewed and downloaded straight from our Photobucket site.  The main folder is set up with sub-folders as wells, so take a look and feel free to download any pictures you'd like to keep.

Varsity Album
JV Album
FroshSoph Album

There's also a special album of pictures from Senior Nite courtesy of the Lee's:

Senior Nite Album


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La Jolla Video Clips

New video clips and pictures have been loaded into our Photobucket account.
Our Mustangs had a strong tournament finishing in the 7th/8th place spot out of 47 teams.  The clips below are from our Friday cross-over match against Cathedral Catholic (2011 CIF San Diego Section Division 3 Champions), and our Saturday Gold Bracket match against Torrey Pines (2011 CIF San Diego Division 1 Finalist).

Here are a few select clips to view that you can access by clicking on the link:

Ryan's D Ball against Torrey Pines
Andrew's Quick against Torrey Pines
Brandon's Go Ball against Cathedral Catholic
Rally against Cathedral Catholic

(Video courtesy of the Matsumoto's)
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Sea View League Parity

The Sea View league is the only league in the Southern Section that has all of its teams in the CIF polls.  This shows that our league not only has parity, but that the teams are playing at a very high level.  The CIF-SS Division II polls for this week looks like this . . . 

1.) Oak Park
2.) Corona Del Mar
3.) Laguna Beach
4.) Valencia
5.) Capistrano Valley - (After defeating our Mustangs last week.)
6.) Trabuco Hills
7.) San Juan Hills
8.) Aliso Niguel - (After defeating El Toro last week.)
9.) Oaks Christian
10.) El Toro (After reaching the Beach City Invitational Semi-finals.)

The battle for the Sea View League crown promises to be a tight, competitive race. Capo Valley has the early edge with its undefeated record, but our Mustangs will have another chance at the Cougars next Thursday (April 5).  Come out to support our Mustangs both away on Tuesday (April 3) against El Toro, and at home on Thursday (April 5) against Capo.
   
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Pictures!

Mr. Robitaille, THHS math teacher and accomplished sports photographer, took some great pictures of all three teams during the Irvine home game.  He has them posted on his website at the following link:
Mr. Robitaille's Website

You can order the pictures straight from his website and the proceeds from the purchase will go to our volleyball program.  There are some great pictures, so take a look!
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Wins over Aliso Niguel

All three teams started the season with wins.  The FroshSoph team took the Wolverines down in two straight sets.  The JV team took the first set rather easily, but Aliso fought back to take game two to force a deciding third set.  Our Mustangs led early in the third set, but lost the lead creating significant anxiety among the Mustang faithful.  But the boys stayed focused and pulled out the win.

The Varsity team started their match slowly.  They played the Wolverines close, but could never get the momentum going, losing the first set 21-25.  The second set was close to the end, but the offense was never in sync, losing the second 23-25, putting the team in a big hole.  In this best of five match, our Mustangs had to win three sets in a row, in order to walk away with a win.  They built their confidence by winning the third set rather easily by the score of 25-16.  The fourth set started strong but the momentum slowed.  Their offense started to pick up, and was enough to push them to a 25-20 win.  The last set would be a battle to 15.  With the momentum squarely on the Mustang side of the court, the Mustang crowd expected a an easy set.  But, the Wolverines fought back and took an early lead in the set.  Timely serving by Ryan Anselmo was enough to put the pressure on Aliso, and help our boys capture the set and the match by a score of 15-13.

The Sea View league promises to be tightly contested this year with all five teams having the talent to knock off the other team on any given night.  Our Mustangs will have its Sea View League opener this Tuesday (March 20) at home against last year's runner-up Aliso Niguel.  Aliso Niguel was the only team to hand our Mustangs a league loss last year, so there is plenty of incentive to take control of the league play by tallying a win against Aliso.  The Wolverines will feature a left-handed opposite as their primary offensive weapon, with solid libero play to anchor the defense.  

The Aliso match will be followed by an away match against Capo Valley on Thursday (March 22).  Capo is picked by some to be a serious contender for the Sea View League crown. 
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Wins over Woodbridge and Irvine

In the two matches this week (March 13 and March 15), our Mustangs not only won, but swept both Woodbridge and Irvine at all three levels.  Congratulations to the coaches Kelly Kepke (FroshSoph), Andrew Borgeson (JV), Craig Moothart (Varsity Assistant), and Dave Hollaway (Varsity) for preparing all three teams in this last week before Sea View League play.

The Varsity team had a strong serving match against Woodbridge with a season high 16 total Aces to pace the team to a 25-13, 25-16, and 25-10 win.  Then they moved on to the Thursday match against Irvine which featured their hitting.  With a team total of 51 Kills, our Mustangs had to come back from a first set loss to win the match in four with scores of 21-25, 25-21, 26-24, and 25-22.

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FroshSoph Team in Pictures

We have two new albums posted of our FroshSoph team.  Take a look by clicking on the following links:

FroshSoph vs San Clemente (March 8)
FroshSoph at Tesoro Tournament (March 10)
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CIF-SS March 12 Polls

CIF Southern Section has released its latest poll.  Although the Division II Top 10 was juggled around a bit, our Mustangs maintained their 5th place spot.  Of note is that all five of the Sea View League teams are mentioned in the poll, with Aliso Niguel, Capo Valley, and San Juan Hills taking spots 6 through 8.  El Toro is barely outside the top 10, but mentioned in the poll.  This will make for a hotly contested Sea View League season which gets kicked off on March 20th with a home match against Aliso Niguel.  Download the entire CIF poll by clicking on the following link:

CIF-22 Mar 12 Poll
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SLO Town Tourney Champions!


The Varsity squad took the drive up on Friday, (March 9) to San Luis Obispo High School to participate in the SLO Town Tourney.  On Friday, they had to play through a four team pool to have a chance to continue toward a championship.  The top two teams from the pool would face other top teams on Saturday for a chance at the Gold Bracket.  Our boys took care of Hueneme (Oxnard), and Pioneer Valley (Santa Maria), rather easily, but had a toughly contested three set win against California (San Ramon) to keep their chances of going to the Gold Bracket alive.

On Saturday, we were faced with another four team pool of top 2 finishers from the Friday pools.  This promised to be a much tougher pool than Friday to ensure a spot in the Gold Bracket. Our first match on Saturday, was against Madera from Central California.  This match ended in a two set Mustang win with scores of 25-17 and 25-14.  The next match was against Ventura.  The same Ventura team knocked our Mustangs out in the semifinals of last year's tournament.  Ventura was triumphant again winning the match in three sets, 23-25, 25-14, 15-12.  Our Mustangs had to win the next match to have a chance at the Gold Bracket.  Their opponent was Rio Mesa of Oxnard. The first set was a confidence builder as our boys routed Rio Mesa with a score of 25-13.  But, Rio Mesa bounced back in the second to win the set 25-22.  Then in the last set, our boys pulled out the win by a score of 15-12, and secured themselves a spot in the 8 team championship playoff.

With the loss to Ventura in pool play, our Mustangs were seeded in the middle of the playoff pack.  The playoffs were one game to 25, so it was important to stay in control of the match.  Their first match was against Nordhoff of Ojai.  This match was close, but our Mustangs were in control most of the way winning the match 25-19.  The second match was against Bullard of Fresno, who had gone undefeated in their pool and were seeded second in the playoffs.  This match was close but a well-balanced team effort, including strong serving and defense from junior Mark Broesamle and sophomore Cole Finley, helped seal the 25-22 win in this semifinal match.  In the other semifinal match, El Toro came into the playoffs seeded first, but they lost to California to make the finals a rematch of the Friday's three set pool play match.  California wanted this rematch after losing to us on Friday and mowed through El Toro to have a chance to face our team.  The finals for our Mustangs was a lesson in playing to your strengths.  Our serving was strong, and our defense and passing was solid, allowing Sean Nakada to set some perfect balls to both outside hitters Brandon Stoker and Ryan Anselmo.  Brandon ended the match with 8 kills, and Ryan Anselmo ended the match with 7 kills including the game winner to secure the win with a score of 25-20.

Congratulations go out to the entire team for the tournament championship.  Brandon Stoker and Sean Nakada have been making the trip to San Luis Obispo ever year since their Freshman year, and their contributions as Seniors were recognized by the tournament.  Ryan Anselmo who continued to become a more potent part of the offense was also given special recognition.

Brandon Stoker: Tournament MVP
Sean Nakada: All Tournament
Ryan Anselmo: All Tournament

Get our teams stats and scores by going to MaxPreps at the following link:
Trabuco Hills MaxPreps
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San Clemente Match

On Thursday, March 8, our Mustangs took on the San Clemente Tritons in a non-league match.  All three levels, FroshSoph, JV, and Varsity, ended up losing to the Tritons.  This was the first loss of the season for the Varsity team.  The Varsity team travels to San Luis Obispo on Friday (March 9) for the annual SLO Town Tourney.  The FroshSoph team will go Tesoro for their own tournament on Satuday, March 10.
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Sweep of Mission Viejo

Our Mustangs had an away contest against Mission Viejo last night (March 6), and walked away with a sweep!  After both the FroshSoph and JV teams completed their wins, the Varsity team had to hold up their end of the bargain.

The first set started slow.  The boys looked tentative in this second match of the year.  Mission Viejo was putting pressure on our Mustangs with their serve and good defense.  Our Mustangs never got control of the set, losing 21-25.  The loss was a bit of a wake-up call and just the incentive the boys needed to turn it up a notch.  Our serving improved in the second set, but it was the offense of our two Middles, Seniors Kyle Rogers and Rushton Hiltbrand that swayed the momentum.  Our Mustangs won the second set easily with a score of 25-14.  The third and fourth sets followed course with wins of 25-21 and 25-17 to complete the win.  Brandon Stoker led the offense with 15 Kills and 5 Aces, followed by Ryan Anselmo with 10 Killls, Rushton Hiltbrand with 7 Kills, and Kyle Rogers with 6 Kills.  Sean Nakada set a well-balanced offense with 36 assists.

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JV Finishes Third

The JV team took the short drive over to Tesoro this past Saturday (March 3) to play in the Tesoro Tournament.  The team played well enough in the morning pool to advance to the gold bracket.  Then they worked their way through the tournament to the semifinal round where they took on the host Tesoro team.  It was a back and forth match that extended past the regulation 25 points, but ended in a loss to the Titans.

See a slideshow of the tournament by clicking on the following link:
JV Tesoro Tourney
(photos courtesy of the Lee's)

The final standings were . . .
Dana Hills
Tesoro
Trabuco Hills

Congratulations to our JV Mustangs!
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OC Top 10 / Southern California Top 20

OC Varsity.com posted their Top 10 teams in Orange County.  Our Mustangs barely missed the top 10, but can move up the standings with wins this week:

OC Top 10 - March 5

VolleyballNow.net has moved our Mustangs into the top 20 after our win against St. Margaret's.  See all top 20 teams at the following link:

SCVR Top 20 - Week 2
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FroshSoph vs St. Margaret's in Pictures

To see a slideshow of the FroshSoph team in action go to the following link:
FroshSoph vs St. Margaret's
(Photos provided by the Velarde's)
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St. Margaret's Match

Both the Varsity and JV teams won tonight (Wednesday, February 29th) in convincing fashion.  The FroshSoph team lost a close, competitive match.

The varsity match ended in three sets by scores of 25-16, 25-13, and 25-17.  The offense was led by Brandon Stoker with an impressive 6 Aces.  Brandon put pressure on St. Margaret's with every serve, forcing a number of overpasses and free balls when not recording an ace.  He also led the team with 16 Kills.  Junior Ryan Anselmo also kept the pressure on St. Margaret's with his serve recording 2 Aces and adding 9 Kills as well.  There was a well-balanced attack through the middle with Rushton Hiltbrand and Kyle Rogers contributing 4 Kills a piece followed by Andrew Samis' 2 kills.  The offense started to flow after the first half of the first set with senior Sean Nakada dishing out 25 Assists.  With all players getting playing time, junior Dillon Matsumoto subbed in at setter and handed out 5 Assists, while junior Ryan Southworth added 3 Assists, 1 Kill, and 1 Ace.

Varsity stats are kept on MaxPreps so click on the logo at the bottom right to see all the stats.
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OC Players to Watch

OCVarsity has two Mustangs on the "Players to Watch".  Read the article by clicking on the following link:
OC Players to Watch
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VolleyballNOW.net

Last year the former OC Register writer who covered high school volleyball, Chris Tobolski, started his own website called TheBackset.com.  Chris wrote frequently about our Mustangs while at the Register, and had some nice commentary last year on our run to the league championship and the CIF semi-final finish.  His website is now called VolleyballNOW.net and he continues to provide the most complete coverage of Southern California volleyball and is a frequent source for the content on this website.  He has started his coverage of the 2012 boys high school volleyball season, so you can catch up on what's happening by clicking on this link or on the VolleyballNOW.net logo on the bottom right of our home page.

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THHS vs El Toro - May 3, 2011 Match

Highlights of the match where Trabuco Hills clinched the Sea View League Championship are now posted on YouTube.  Click on the link below to see the video:

Trabuco Hills at El Toro
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THHS vs Aliso Niguel - March 22, 2011 Match

Highlights from the March 22nd match against Aliso Niguel are posted on YouTube.  This was the league opener last year; the start of the team's journey to a Sea View League championship:

Trabuco Hills at Aliso Niguel

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Sea View League Champs and 
Spring Sports Rally Dance Champs . . . WHAT?!

Definitely a video is worth a thousand words:
Click Here

The Boys' Volleyball team, after being robbed last year (at least according to the boys), showed that they could dance as well as play volleyball (at least in their own minds)!

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Senior Nite Festivities

On Thursday, May 5th, prior to the last league match of the season, our Mustangs celebrated the volleyball careers and high school memories of our nine graduating seniors.

See the slideshow by clicking the following link:
Senior Nite

Or view and download the photos from our Photobucket site: Photobucket Site


(Photos courtesy of the Lee's)
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Ace, Kill, Block, Dig . . .

Interested in learning about volleyball stats?  During the season, you can keep up with complete varsity game stats on MaxPreps.com or a short summary of key varsity stats on OCVarsity.com.  And, if you want to learn more, here are two good references endorsed by AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches of America) to help decipher the terminology:

AVCA Keeping Stats Slide Show

2008 NCAA Statistician's Manual
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