The Sweetwater High School boys varsity volleyball tournament was last hosted two years ago and has since become the first large tournament in the San Diego Section with 46 teams from all divisions and all areas of the section.
Helix Charter High School earned the mantle as Silver Division champions at the Feb. 25-26 event held in National City.
Santana High School finished runner-up to Helix. Meanwhile, Liberty Charter finished as the Steel Division runner-up team to add more East County flavor to the tournament.
Overall, there were six championship divisions — Gold, Silver,
Bronze, Copper, Steel and Brass.
San Marcos defeated Otay Ranch 25-22, 25-19 to win the
Gold championship while Helix defeated Santana 25-18, 25-13 to win the Silver championship.
Morse defeated Santa Fe Christian 20-25, 25-23, 15-6 to win
the Bronze championship while Clairemont defeated Fallbrook
25-8, 24-22 to win the Copper championship.
Hilltop defeated Liberty Charter 25-14, 21-25,15-11 to win the
Steel championship while High Tech High San Diego defeated
Escondido Charter to win the Brass championship.
Helix, which finished as the runner-up to Ramona in last
spring’s San Diego Section Division II championship game,
finished 6-1 over the two-day tournament. The Highlanders
downed Escondido (25-21, 25-23), Monte Vista (25-15, 25-12) and O’Farrell Charter (25-17, 25-21)
in 2-0 sweeps to start the tournament 3-0 before dropping a 2-1 decision to University City (25-23, 20-25, 9-15).
The Scotties rebounded with consecutive 2-1 wins over Olympian (25-17, 20-25, 15-12) and Coronado (25-22, 23-25, 15-12) to meet Santana in the Silver championship game.
Santana finished 4-3 in the tournament.
The Sultans lost two-games to-one in their tourney opener
against University City (25-14, 23-25, 14-16) before posting
consecutive 2-0 sweeps against Hilltop (25-20, 25-22), Bayfront Charter (25-7, 25-14) and Granite Hills (25-18, 25-19). The Santee team lost 2-0 to Madison (19-25, 23-25), then defeated San Dieguito Academy in three games to meet Helix in the championship game.
The Bronze finals took place at Montgomery High School while
the Copper finals took place at Olympian High School. The Steel finals took place at Southwest High School while the Brass finals took place at Monte Vista High School.
Liberty Charter finished with wins over Mater Dei Catholic and
San Ysidro and losses to Granite Hills and Hilltop.
Section runners-up
Helix finished 10-0 in Grossmont Hills League play during
the shortened 2021 spring season, 13-1 overall. The Scotties
were undefeated until they met Ramona in the CIF final. The
Bulldogs won the school’s first section banner in the sport by 3-2 in a five-game matchup.
The Highlanders received the No. 4 seed in the divisional playoffs but upset top-seeded San Marcos in the semifinals to advance against the Bulldogs.
Helix won the first set in the championship final 25-15 but Ramona won the second set 25-16.
The Scotties won the third set 25-17 before Ramona broke three ties in the fourth set to win 27-25.
The third-seeded Bulldogs (17-3) won the tiebreaker 15-10.
