Some school history was made out in Long Beach today as Millikan boys’ volleyball came up with a sweep against Northwood High School to make it to the CIF-SS Division 4 semifinals. The Rams won the match by a score of 25-22, 26-24, 25-18 to become the first team in program history to advance beyond the quarterfinal round.
“This is an excellent group, said Rams head coach Matt Johnson. “I hope that we continue to play our best, that’a all I ever asked for of them. All of the continued success is just a bonus in all of that.”
It was not easy for the Rams. They were in a back and forth fight during the first set as the lead changed three times coming down the stretch. After trailing 17-15, Millikan rallied back and held on to take the first set by a score of 25-22.
They saw a little bit of trouble in the second. Northwood jumped out to a 16-12 lead and had been playing very strong offensively. But Millikan walked them back down and and fought their way back into it. Tommy Halligan was taking over, scoring on kills and blocks. Then he got the story book ending to the set as he finished with one of his five aces and Rams take set two 26-24.
“We just needed to play our game and not panic…We needed to play confident in what we were doing rather than playing in fear,” said Johnson.
They did just that as they controlled the majority of the final set. The Rams went on to win in three sets as they took this one 25-18 to keep their season alive and advance to the semifinals on Saturday.
The Rams will be hitting the road for San Juan Capistrano as they’ll take on St. Margaret’s with a trip to the championship on the line.
In other local boys’ volleyball action, defending CIF-SS Division 3 champions Wilson fell in five sets in their D2 quarterfinal at San Marcos.