Last summer, Torrey Pines High School volleyball standout Griffin Dieter was named one of the top 16 juniors in the nation.

So what has one of the country’s top liberos been doing since the high school season started?

Playing a new position, for starters.

Dieter has been playing outside hitter for the Falcons and has been outstanding.

On Saturday, he helped lead them to a tie for seventh place at the Best of the West tournament at Alliant University, earning all-tournament honors.

“I knew I had the ability to help my team the best I could as an outside,” Dieter said. “So when I approached Coach Nick (Rubacky), it was mainly from the fact of, ‘Hey, I know I have the skills to be a pretty good outside and I think I can help us win games,’ so that’s what I thought would be best for our team.”

The libero position is generally reserved for smaller players who fearlessly get every ball off the floor. At 6-foot-4, Dieter isn’t your typical libero.

He also brings a calming influence, teaming with fellow outside Declan Flanagan, a 6-7 Stanford commit, to form one of the most chill captain combinations in the section.

The decision was made easier with the emergence of freshman George Burnell, whohas stepped into the libero spot for the Falcons (14-4).

“When you’re looking especially at high school in San Diego, and you’re looking to get your best seven, eight, nine guys on the court, (Burnell) is one of our best guys, so it makes sense to get Griff on the outside and George at libero,” Rubacky said. “We’re going through some growing pains and figuring stuff out. What’s cool for me is we’re playing well already, but we’re not anywhere near our ceiling.”

San Diego holds its own

The Best of the West featured 12 of the top 25 teams in the USA TODAY Sports/AVCA Super 25 rankings, including the nation’s top three teams.

The championship featured No. 2 Mira Costa sweeping No. 3 Corona Del Mar. The semifinals featured the Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 teams in the nation.

This year marked the first time in the tournament’s history that the majority of San Diegoteams in the field reached the gold division.

Bishop’s (tied for fifth), Torrey Pines (tied for seventh), La Costa Canyon (tied for 11th ), Carlsbad (tied for 13th ) and Poway (tied for 15th) all finished first or second in pool play.

Bishop’s is seventh in the nation, with Torrey Pines is close behind at 12. Carlsbad came into the weekend at No. 22 and Poway at No. 23.

The Mavericks (8-6) had two impressive three-set wins in pool play, including an 18-16 win over Honolulu Kamehameha to advance. The Lancers (9-5) finished strong with a win over Poway (11-4) despite not having Ben Blasi on Saturday. Poway was also missing its outside hitter Daniel Hornyak.

“I’m super proud we made it into the gold division,” Lancers coach Annette Bashford said. “We’re not quite there yet with our ability to be super flexible and have somebody jump in, but we’re working toward that and we’ll get there.”

Built for this

Bishop’s finished as the top San Diego team, and it’s not a surprise.

The Knights (12-1) are built for success, a process several years in the making. They suffered their first loss of the season Saturday at the hands of Los Angeles Loyola, the No. 1 team in the nation.

They beat Honolulu Moanalua to start Saturday’s playoff bracket and recovered from the Loyola loss to beat Honolulu Punahou and finish tied for fifth with Newport Beach Newport Harbor, whichdefeated Torrey Pines to end the day.

“Obviously (the Loyola match) didn’t go our way, but I think it was really good for us to see that,” said 6-6 senior middle blocker Giles Beemer, a UCSD commit. “Being at this tournament, it’s a lot of high-level volleyball. Going up against a team you know is going to be one of, if not the, best team in the country, it gives us a really good experience, really good touches, especially for some of the guys that haven’t been playing against guys like that.”

Bishop’s beat Torrey Pines at a mixer (mini tournament) during the first week of the season. The two teams will meet again in a non-league matchup April 23 at Bishop’s in what could be a preview of the Open Division championship.

“We don’t have the size — numbers or height-wise — but we’ve got a lot of really intelligent volleyball players,” Shaffer said. “We’re excited to get a fifth, but we’re not satisfied. We want to keep building on this toward the end of the season, come CIF playoff time and see what happens.”