CYPRESS >> The senior-led Foothill boys volleyball team swept a young Cypress squad, 25-16, 25-22 and 25-20, in a CIF-SS Division 2 first-round match Thursday at Cypress High School.
Foothill (19-3) will take on Long Beach Wilson in a second-round match at Wilson on Saturday.
Senior outside hitter Isaac Seltzer scored from both sides of the court for a team-leading total of 10 kills, three blocks and 10 digs.
Junior Hudson Wooton delivered nine kills and senior middle blocker Bryce Tallman had five kills and two blocks.
“We all came in fired up to win,” Seltzer said. “We’re not going out in the first round. I came in heated and ready to play.”
The Centurions, who started four sophomores, two juniors and one senior, finished the season at 12-5, including a 10-0 record in the Empire League.
Foothill took a 7-6 lead in the first set and extended the lead to 20-13 before closing out the set on a 4-1 run.
The second set wound up being the key set of the match.
A series of kills by Tyler Degener, helped the Centurions build a 16-8 lead.
With Seltzer serving, the Knights went on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to four.
The Knights went on another mini-run take a 21-20 lead and closed out the set with three consecutive points to take a 2-0 lead.
“I was bringing in the guys, saying, ‘we got to go now. It’s now or never,’” Seltzer said. “We all wanted this.”
Said Cypress coach Alex Griffiths: “We had them. We just have to close (sets).”
Wooton served three aces in the third set, which played out much like the first, with the Knights taking six-point lead and then maintaining a lead of between three and five points the rest of the way.
Foothill defeated Cypress in a four-set match on April 13 at Cypress.
Wilson had a first-round bye, and the entire team was in the Cypress gym to scout their next opponent.
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The contest Saturday will be a playoff rematch from 2021, when the Bruins defeated the Knights in three sets before going on to win the Division 3 championship.
“We got destroyed by them last year,” Foothill coach Chris Lee said.
Both teams were moved up to Division 2 for the playoffs before this season started.