The Lakewood boys’ volleyball team has its eyes set on the Moore League championship this year and they looked ready for the podium on Tuesday afternoon in an impressive sweep of defending league champion Wilson on the road, 25-15, 25-13, 25-16.
Junior standout Teilon Tufuga has been a standout for the Lancers the last two years, and he was sensational on Tuesday afternoon. Tufuga had 13 kills, eight blocks, five aces, and 15 digs, accounting for 26 of his team’s 75 points in the match.
“He’s unreal,” said Lakewood coach Devon Taylor, who made the wise strategic decision to shift Tufuga to the right side this season. “He’s playing great volleyball right now.”
For Tufuga, the sport is a family affair—his cousins Kyler and Kameron are also major contributers. His older brother, Storm Fa’agata-Tufuga, was a standout at Lakewood who’s now at BYU.
“It’s so fun, I wouldn’t rather play with any other team,” he said. “It’s our family sport, pretty much everyone plays.”
The Lancers, who are ranked No. 2 in the CIF-SS Division 2 poll, led the match wire to wire. The Bruins got strong performances from Dylan Herrera (seven kills) and standout freshman setter Payne Lounsbery, who had six kills along with sharing the ball-handling duties.
“(Teilon) was clearly the best player on the court today, his block was just so big and he’s got a great serve,” said Wilson coach Jeremy Cook. “We knew they’d be tough, we committed more errors than we wanted to—against a good team like them we can’t do that.”
In addition to Tufuga, Lakewood was led by Daniel Wright (7 kills), Kyler Tufuga (6 kills), and Beau Tiedemann (5 kills). Setter Emmanuel Mitai had 30 assists.
Lakewood remained undefeated in league and will have a bye on Thursday while Wilson falls to 2-1 in league and will host Long Beach Poly on Thursday.
