Top-seeded Escondido Adventist Academy claims first CIF boys volleyball championship

Two years ago, Escondido Adventist Academy lost in the first CIF San Diego Division 5-AA boys volleyball championship.

On Thursday, it returned to the title match and kept the sweeps rolling, taking down No. 2 Bayfront Charter, 25-21, 25-18, 25-20, at Logan Memorial High School.

“I’m going to remember this forever,” Hawks coach Elijah Ewing said as his team closed the season winning each of its last 16 sets.

“It’s been how close the group is. We’ve gone through ups and downs, but the down just makes us stronger.”

Escondido Adventist (16-4) was led by junior Josh Jung, who had a game-high 19 kills, including game-sealing attacks to end the second set and the match over the Sharks (15-9).

“It feels really good to get those good sets from (junior setter Abram Gomez). The angles were really open,” Jung said. “When the set is off, I don’t hit it hard because it is going to go off, so I only hit it hard on the good sets. I can see the open spot because when the ball comes up, I can see the open spots.”

With Jung attacking on the outside, the Hawks also had a force in the middle from Victor Cortez, who had nine kills.

In the second set, the junior had consecutive kills as well as back-to-back service aces to help his team take a 22-11 lead as part of a 12-3 run.

Cortez said his key to attacking in the middle is having court vision of his opponents.

“Sometimes it’s hard to land those kills because there’s going to be a blocker right there,” he said. “You just got to hit it smart. It doesn’t always have to be a kill; it can be a tip.”

As the attack comes from both the outside and middle, it puts together a lethal trio.

“That’s the best lineup on our team,” Jung said. “When me, Abram and Victor were all in the front row, Abram, our setter has a lot of options to play. So, when Victor goes up, the blocker is going to jump on him, and then Abraham’s going to set me and I just hit the open spot.”

The Hawks scored the first seven points of the third set before allowing five of the next six points, forcing Ewing to call his first timeout of the match.

“I was telling them the entire time, if we don’t make errors, we’re going to win this in three,” Ewing said. “If we hold our mistakes to zero, we’re going to win this game easy, and that’s what they did the rest of the set.”

Bayfront Charter totaled four blocks as a team.

“They’re a great team, probably the best block we faced pretty much all year, and so we kind of had to strategize around that,” Ewing said of the Sharks.