The 2025 Foothill League boys’ volleyball title is officially West Ranch’s to lose.
Earning their seventh sweep in eight league matches on Tuesday at Canyon High School, the Wildcats took down the hosting Cowboys, 25-17, 27-25, 25-21, to create two games of separation between the two squads.
West Ranch (19-4, 8-0) has dropped just one set in its league campaign so far as the Wildcats look to capture the league title for the first time since 2022.
“I don’t think it feels dominant,” said West Ranch head coach Brandon Johnson. “We know that teams always are going to give us our best shot. Our league is very, very tough. Every single match that we’ve played, we’ve played tough sets, tough matches. That did not feel like a dominant game today. We were definitely not our best. There were things that we did today that were some of the best things we’ve done. Our blocking was very, very good today. We won a lot of scrappy plays that we don’t always win, but that did not feel dominant today.”
The scrappiest play of the evening put the Wildcats on match point over Canyon (17-5, 6-2). Sophomore setter Stephen Choi raced to save a ball and hit it over his head from behind the back line, but in an almost perfect spot for senior Noah Douphner to put it away for one of his match-high 24 kills.
“He was the first person to say that that was the best set he’s ever gotten his life,” Johnson said. “You know, scrambling off the court, Stephen basically off of one foot, launching it across the court — that’s the kind of hustle that we need as a team. We’re not the biggest team in the world. Obviously, we have a really great hitter, but you know, if we can win those kinds of points, where we’re scrambling, we’re hustling, those are big momentum changes.”
Douphner added seven aces. Choi led with 22 assists while senior Jackson Manansala had 16 assists. Senior Lucas Fico added nine kills and senior Logan Sanchez had 11 digs.
Canyon nearly stole the second set, only to see the Wildcats buckle down and keep momentum on their side.
Manansala said the goal lately has been to limit errors, and that’s what they did to take the second set.
“We are trying to limit our errors, for sure, and that’s just something that we’re trying to keep ourselves very strict on,” Manansala said. “And we kind of think that our matches are a reflection of that. Like, when we were at Valencia, we dropped a set, and we were making a lot of errors.”
Canyon didn’t back down in the third set, though. The Cowboys kept on pushing to try to break down the Wildcats and made it a 22-21 deficit before West Ranch won the final three points of the match.
Junior Blake Hastings led the way for Canyon with 12 kills and two aces. Junior James Courtemarsh supplied six kills, senior Jayden Hayes had six kills and senior Hayden Jones had five kills.
Senior setter James Audette recorded 16 assists.
Canyon head coach Jeff Cody said that while Tuesday’s match finished in a sweep, just like the reverse matchup at West Ranch High School earlier this season, he felt that his team actually performed better in this one.
“We definitely improved from the last time we played them,” Cody said. “For sure, huge improvement. You know, we’ve been working on that. I mean, our goal is to still try and do the best we can in the league and go from there, just kind of like the chips fall where they may.”
Canyon is slated to have its league bye on Thursday. The Cowboys don’t return to the court until Monday, April 14, a non-league match at home against Burbank, before traveling to Golden Valley the following Wednesday.
West Ranch is scheduled to host Saugus on Thursday.
Here’s what else happened in Foothill League boys’ volleyball action on Tuesday:
Saugus 3, Valencia 0: The Saugus Centurions (11-10, 4-4) moved to .500 in league play with a sweep of the hosting Valencia Vikings (16-6, 5-3), 25-20, 27-25, 25-21.
Saugus now trails third-place Valencia by just one game.
Josh Lane led Saugus with 11 kills, one ahead of Owen Jackson. Manny Ranit had 25 assists and Zach York had five blocks.
Nathan Willis had 13 digs for Valencia. Dylan McFatridge recorded seven kills while Leo Sangthongkum and Gavan Miranda had six kills each.
Golden Valley 3, Castaic 0: The Golden Valley Grizzlies (10-10, 3-4) are looking to sneak into the top four of the league after sweeping Castaic at home, 25-21, 25-20, 27-25.
The Grizzlies have a game in hand as they trail fourth-place Saugus by half a game.
Jared Rivera had 14 kills and Gabe Reinwand had 13 kills for Castaic. Brian Le added 29 assists.
