THE BEST

By Brandon Petersen

You have to hand it to the No. 14 Westcliff men's volleyball team.

They sure know how to put on a show.

And wow was the packed gym on hand at Cypress High School Friday night ready to party.

The Warriors' 3-2 win over UC Merced to claim the Cal Pac regular season championship outright was bonkers from the opening whistle.

"It was a great environment," Westcliff head coach Alex Griffiths said. "The team had a full house of support."

Indeed.

While Westcliff has slowly built itself into a league force over the past five years, UC Merced has always travelled well and packed the gym with Bobcat fans across all sports.

But Friday in Cypress, the tables had clearly turned. Half the gym was full of Bobcats – but the other half was packed with Warriors – and loud ones – holding signs, cheering on their boys – it was quite a moment for a program that has slowly but surely taken over the league.

And now that UC Merced is bouncing out, Westcliff looks poised to take its place as the Cal Pac torch-bearer.

But after the Bobcats battled all the way back from a 2-0 deficit to force a decisive fifth Friday, Griffiths and the Warriors know – this was just the first decisive battle.

After stealing the crown from Merced at Gallo a year ago, the Warriors know the Bobcats will be seeing red come tournament time.

"UC Merced is resilient, and they have grit," Griffiths said. "We understand it will be tough playing against them for the title."

Friday night was yet another classic Cal Pac clash between rivals.

The Dubs raced out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to the hard-hitting of Rodolfo Biegelmeyer, the brick wall upfront provided by Connor McCann, the precision passing of Pawel Tuz, and some bananas back-row saves from Sebastian Ignaczak.

The Dubs were firing on all cylinders early.

"Connor McCann played phenomenal at net," Griffiths said. "He gave us both offense and defense, and he made the little plays."

Griffiths also credited Biegelmeyer with providing pin after pin, and both Tuz and Nikos Kalagasidis for their leadership.

"Pawel and Nikos did a great job of quarterbacking our team," she said.

Biegelmeyer finished with a gaudy 23 kills, and McCann had 11 and seven blocks on defense.

Ignaczak finished with 15 digs, and Tuz collected 52 – you read that right – 52 assists.

But it wasn't all rosy for the home team.

With a chance to put it away early, Westcliff allowed Merced to find its groove, and the Bobcats clapped back with a 25-22, and 25-23 wins in sets three and four, respectively.

"We had a little bit of a letdown in the middle of the match," Griffiths said.

Despite making it a little closer than perhaps it should have been, the Warriors shut it down in the fifth for a 15-11 win, and the championship.

Westcliff (15-4, 7-0) will have a chance to make it an undefeated league championship with a win over Simpson tonight.

First serve is set for 6 p.m. at Golden West.