Burlingame stuns Aragon to play spoiler in boys’ volleyball race

Now the Burlingame Panthers (3-3 PAL Bay, 19-8 overall) have emerged as an impact team, putting the division on notice Wednesday with a 25-23, 23-25, 26-24, 19-25, 16-14 upset victory at Aragon, moving Aragon and Carlmont into a first-place tie, with third-place Burlingame now two games back in the standings.

“It was tons of celebration,” Burlingame head coach Lawrence Ngai said. “It was like we won the championship of the league or something along those lines. We had just beat the best team ... so it was amazing that we were all just so, so happy. We were just shocked.”

Celebrating a championship isn’t something Burlingame has ever done. In two previous seasons on the PAL circuit since the boys’ volleyball team was formed, the Panthers were coming off a serviceable 16-14 overall record in 2023, but still finished near the bottom of the standings with a 3-7 PAL Bay record, taking fifth place in the six-team division.

Even in two Nor Cal Invitational tournament appearances this season, Burlingame has settled for runner-up. Advancing in the gold bracket in each of the tourneys — one at Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, and the other at Rancho Cotati in Rohnert Park — the Panthers fell int the finals, both times to Northgate-Walnut Creek.

Not unlike Aragon and Carlmont, however, Burlingame has a good stash of standouts who play year-round on the club volleyball circuit. The team finished 2023 with six club players, and added two freshmen to this year’s varsity roster who also play club — with the eight clubbies spanning from SF Elite Volleyball Club in San Francisco, to Bay to Bay Volleyball Club in San Jose, to Academy Volleyball Club in Redwood City.

“I think the over landscape in the northern part of the Peninsula has been growing and growing fast,” Ngai said. “There’s a lot of clubs that have been doing well ... but I see a lot more club players now and I encourage players to play all year round.”

Burlingame also rosters a player with one of the coolest names on the volleyball circuit, 6-4 middle blocker Raz Matick. With the race to 15 of Wednesday’s decisive Game 5 going to extra points, Matick capped the win by forcing the Aragon attack to redirect and misfire wide, punctuating what was no doubt one of the greatest wins in the history of the Burlingame program.

Burlingame is a well-balanced squad, steered by setter Cole Ng, who finished with 45 assists. Outside hitter Fabian Falconett scored a team-high 20 kills, while Reiter Madden — who Ngai dubbed the Panthers’ rock star — finished with 16 kills.

“I think we have a very balanced team from all the different positions, starting with our starting setter Cole Ng,” Ngai said. “He’s been playing for the last four years already ... and he brought a lot to the table”

Aragon (6-1, 23-2) boasts one of the country’s best attackers in senior outside hitter Cameron Sears, who ranks fourth in nation with 312 kills, among team that report statistics to MaxPreps.com. Sears did his usual damage Wednesday, scoring a match-high 26 kills. But the Panthers were able to take advantage of Sears rotating to the back row early in Game 5 to gather momentum toward the eventual win.

“That was the thing we wanted to do, and we accomplished that where we were only down one or two points, and he was in the back row,” Ngai said.

Aragon senior Luke Phillips added 20 kills, while setter Santiago Smirnoff recorded 45 assists.

But Burlingame has an any-team-on-any-day philosophy, Ngai said. It certainly paid off in the form of five-set battle.

“The way I think about it is anyone can win a game,” Ngai said. “There’s certainly no one team better than the other, especially in the Bay Division. We have two of the nation’s top teams in our division. It’s tough ... but anyone can win on any given day.”

Now, Burlingame finishes a challenging week with an even tougher opponent, traveling to Carlmont (6-1, 25-8) for a Friday evening showdown.

“Well, we have to play three more matches, with Carlmont being next,” Burlingame head coach Lawrence Ngai said. “It’s going to be a lot of work for us. ... Again we’ll play our hardest and do our best.”