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    Brea Olinda volleyball loses to San Gabriel Academy in 5-set thriller in CIF-SS finals
    • May 15, 2025

    BREA — The Brea Olinda boys volleyball team was on the verge of being swept in the CIF-SS Division 7 championship match against San Gabriel Academy on Wednesday at Brea Olinda High School.

    The Wildcats went down in the first set, lost badly in the second set, but then won the next two to force a fifth and deciding set.

    But the Eagles, led by their strong outside hitters, Achilles Huang and Ryan Agustin, came back to take the fifth set and win the match and the championship, 25-20, 25-15, 23-25, 21-25, 15-10.

    The Wildcats hadn’t made it to the Southern Section playoffs since 2009, when they lost in the first round, Brea Olinda coach Kavita Arasu said.

    “This is the first time in school history that we’ve made it this far,” Arasu said. “So, this season we did phenomenal job and I have to give a big shout out to my assistant coach. He really stepped up and did some things that I wasn’t able to do and we double teamed up. We were able to have a great group of boys that wanted it and wanted to work hard and agreed that they needed to be disciplined the whole, entire time. So that’s what really took us the furthest.”

    The Wildcats battled back despite losing starting outside hitter C.J. Villaverde to an injury in the second set.

    “The boys fought for him,” Arasu said. “They wanted it. It was hard because we really wanted to win the whole thing but I congratulate San Gabriel Academy for coming out and having an amazing season as well.”

    San Gabriel Academy (16-10) relied mainly on Huang, who got set often and finished with 34 kills.

    The Wildcats (18-13) were led by Addison Altermatt and Mason del Rosario who had 11 and eight kills, respectively, and combined for six blocks.

    “We have a lot of younger guys that stepped up,” Altermatt said. “And it’s the first time in our program that we’ve have a good team that our coach built. And nobody’s ever made it this far in our school history. And I think we just had a fire under us this season to keep competing.”

    After the Wildcats lost Villaverde, Eagles coach Derek Duran said he thought his team would come away with a sweep.

    “But they fought hard,” Duran said of Brea Olinda. “I give them all the respect because for them to go out there and throw another guy in and win the next two and then bring it to five and scare us like that, it’s a testament to good coaching and a good squad.”

    The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set and while the Eagles were always close behind and got to within one point to make the score 24-23 before Jeremiah Ammermann got the final kill for the Wildcats to send the match to a fourth set.

    Brea Olinda trailed early in the fourth set but took a 7-5 lead on back-to-back kills from Seith Vivek and never trailed from that point.

    Huang and Augustin combined for eight of the Eagles’ 15 points in the fifth set.

     

     Orange County Register 

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