Hart Indians boys’ volleyball is heading to the CIF championship match after sweeping the visiting Dana Hills Dolphins on Saturday.
The win marked Hart’s first sweep of the postseason as the Indians inch closer to their season-long goal of the CIF crown.
Hart won the match, 25-18, 26-24, 25-20.
The Indians have shown issues getting into rhythm early but wasted no time in the CIF semifinals. Hart exploded on an early 7-0 run with senior Owen Douphner serving.
The Dolphins struggled to find their groove and Douphner’s big jump serve helped keep Dana Hills out of sync.
Douphner finished with 22 kills.
Indians head coach Loy Mueller realized this was Dana Hills’ first road playoff match and knew a fast start would be the recipe for success for his squad.
“We got up 14-10 and I told the boys, ‘Hey, that’s what we needed to do. Now we just need to go faster,’” Mueller said. “We didn’t go faster at times, but we still kept calm and we kept our cool, which we’ve done all year no matter what the run has been. So, it just feels really good to start strong and finish strong every set.”
Hart had a few early mishaps in the second set that led to an early Dolphin lead. Dana Hills pressed hard throughout the set and fought to a 24-19 set point. A Douphner kill sent senior Hank Kaufman back to serve, where he rocketed the Indians back into the game.
Kaufman gave the Dolphins’ serve receive fits and served up two aces before forcing an overpass that Douphner sent back to tie the match 24-24. Kaufman sparked the run with a strong float serve but, with the green light, the senior fired away his booming jump serve and knocked down back-to-back aces to win the set, 26-24.
“I was just thinking ‘just get the ball in’ and if the toss was right just hit it hard and see what happens,” Kaufman said. “I don’t think it was by luck that I got those in, but it was definitely awesome and I had a lot of energy. “
Kaufman finished the match with 13 kills, six aces and a block.
Hart continued to fight and some early blocks from Gabe Stokes and Douphner pushed the Indians to a quick 4-0 lead. The Dolphins fought back and kept it tight until 17-17. Stokes, Douphner and Kaufman all slammed down kills to pull away in the third game. Kaufman registered his final ace before two kills from Douphner officially punched the team’s ticket to the CIF finals match.
“I think there are more moments than not where everything is clicking right now,” Mueller said. “Hopefully we can spend a week at practice and identify when those moments are happening to prevent them so that we are at our best, as much as we can be.”
Setter Tanner Andrew ran the offense to near-perfection on Saturday and finished with 26 assists.
“I think everything’s cooking,” Kaufman said. “Our setter Tanner, he’s doing a great job. We’re trying our best and hitting the ball as hard as we can in spots that we’ve talked about in practice. Isaac Kim’s doing a great job on defense. We got our middles involved. Everything’s just really meshing really well and everything’s going great.”
The Indians will face the El Dorado Golden Hawks on Saturday at Cerritos College.
“We’re going to enjoy it today and tomorrow,” Mueller said. “I told the boys they get to enjoy it on Monday. But on Tuesday, it’s back to work. We’re going to find out who we’re playing in about two hours. They get to relax but I’ll be watching as much as I can.”
Hart’s magical season will now also continue past Saturday’s championship match as the Indians also now qualify for the 2023 Regional Championships.
The Indians have taken this entire season one game at a time but now the next match lies in the CIF championship against a team that has taken down several giants in the bracket. The Golden Hawks have wins against No. 1 Claremont and No. 5 Calvary Chapel under their belts and will enter the championship bout with nearly as much momentum as Hart.
Hart and El Dorado square off Saturday at 12 p.m.
“I’m hoping that we get a CIF ring and make a really deep run at state,” Kaufman said. “It would be awesome to win a state title but we’ll keep working and see what we can do.”
