The562’s coverage of Long Beach Volleyball in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Misty May-Treanor and the Dream in Gold Foundation.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
Wilson’s trend of sweeping competitive teams continued on Wednesday night as they defeated Redondo Union 25-16, 26-15, 25-23.
Wilson entered this game tied for 11th in the CIF polls, and Redondo Union ranked 14th. The Bruins’ goal this season is to make their mark in CIF, and their performance on Wednesday showed that they have what it takes.
“We’ve been trying out different rotations and hitting tactics at practice to prepare for this game and our future playoff matches,” Wilson coach Chris Ceballos said, “Our pin hitters are big, we want to showcase their skills.”
The Bruins were able to showcase their big hitters, as junior Ian Nolte had a game high of 11 kills, and sophomore Marek Turner was right behind him with 10. Junior Will Morrison also tallied 8 kills and 2 aces to lead the Bruins to victory.
Wilson dominated Redondo Union for a majority of the game, until the third set when they were down for the first time the entire game, at 12-17.
“We have to chip away at their lead, bringing high energy to every point,” Turner said.
“Knowing that Redondo would be a tough match, we started our momentum against Millikan so we could carry it over,” Nolte said, “Even though our momentum started to fizzle out during the third set, we knew that our level of volleyball was higher than theirs, we just had to play like it.”
Setter Braden Pool-Harris was able to connect with Nolte and Turner, while also staying sharp on defense, giving Turner the opportunity to showcase his second-ball skills, making the Bruins offense more diverse and unpredictable.
After the game, Redondo Union coach Kevin Norman noted the caliber of play between the two teams and how it will carry into playoffs.
“We were able to come into this match with little pressure because they (Wilson) are ranked higher than us. We wanted to play our game, unfortunately we didn’t do that until the third set,” Norman said, “The rotation and mentality switch in that set helped us figure out what can help us succeed in the playoffs.”
Wilson will travel to Jordan on Thursday to finish league play.
