After bringing home the first Central Coast Section championship in program history, the season came to an end Tuesday for the Aragon boys’ volleyball team.
Meliame Hala’ufia
The No. 6-seed Dons (33-10) were eliminated in their CIF Division II Northern California regional opener in a five-set thriller 25-20, 25-27, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13 at No. 3 Laguna Creek-Elk Grove.
Aragon led midway through Game 5, but in the end could not contain outside hitter Jake Shipley. The senior capped a contentious rally to end it with a kill off the left side.
“We got a good pass,” Aragon setter Santiago Smirnoff said. “I set my outside, they picked it up a good defensive ball. ... They set their outside and the shot went through my hands on the block. Unfortunate.”
The loss caps the end of Smirnoff’s four-year varsity career, making him the longest tenured player on the Dons’ roster this season. He is committed to play NCAA Division I men’s volleyball at University of the Pacific next season.
“He did well,” Aragon head coach Meliame Hala’ufia said. “He left it all on the floor. Hustled, encouraged everybody, got a couple good blocks in the match. Just left it all out on the floor. Definitely a key player that we’ll miss in the future.”
Tuesday, the two-hour bus ride to Elk Grove and the Dons’ nerves of playing in their second Nor Cal opener in three years took some time to undo before swinging ahead with wins in games 2 and 3.
“I think we had shaken out the nerves a little more,” Smirnoff said. “We just started playing a little more freely. We just started playing our brand of volleyball.”
After Aragon dropped the first set, Hala’ufia shook things up at the middle blocker position. Senior middle Cameron Ngai has been playing in rotation with junior Raghav Vemulapalli for much of the season, and the duo starred in Saturday’s four-set win over Mountain View in the CCS Division I finals, sharing the match-high with 12 kills apiece.
Senior Charlie Wilcox moved to the middle with Ngai and Vemulapalli alternating sets from Game 3 on. The shakeup proved effective, as Aragon rallied back to win Game 2 in extra-points.
“And we got lucky because they sent a free ball over that went outside the antenna,” Hala’ufia said.
After Game 3, Aragon’s spirits were riding high.
“The vibes were high,” Smirnoff said. “We were just excited to be competing at that high level and we were just ready to get after it in the fourth.”
Shipley led Laguna Creek (22-6) in scoring this season, entering Tuesday’s match with 456 kills, averaging 5.4 kills per set.
“He did well,” Hala’ufia said. “Wherever he was, they were just finding him. We were able to get some blocks up on him ... and just throughout the game just playing good defense around him. ... Just missed the last few points.”
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