Chatsworth boys volleyball sweeps El Camino Real to stay unbeaten in league
CHATSWORTH- Chatsworth boys volleyball continued its tear through West Valley League play with a sweep of El Camino Real on Wednesday.
The Chancellors won in straight sets, 25-22, 25-20, 25-19, marking their fifth straight win and tightening their grip on first place in the league standings.
Chatsworth (18-6, 6-0) showcased its steady passing and rarely allowed the ball to drop easily on the court.
Sophomore libero Kevin Rabaja led the defense with 13 digs while junior outside hitter Jax Nilon led the offense. Nilon had the hot hand in the opening set, where he hammered down six of his match-high 16 kills.
The junior has been through some difficulties and is happy to be back with his teammates.
“I’ve had a lot of health issues unrelated to school,” Nilon said. “I had to miss my entire sophomore year of playing volleyball as well. But I recently have gotten healthier and come back. I’ve had a really good surrounding team to support me, and an awesome coach. So it’s great to have this backing from the team. Overcoming adversity, coming into a game like this and putting up the numbers, It feels awesome.”
Chatsworth powered ahead multiple times but El Camino (14-11, 4-2) found an answer after every run. The Royals trailed 18-11 before storming back into the set on an 8-2 run. The team passed and hit the ball better during the run and later fired off three consecutive points while facing set point.
The Chancellors closed out the first game with a kill from Noa Beauregard, who finished with 11 kills.
The opposite hitter made his biggest splash of the day in the second set, where he fired off three straight aces to give Chatsworth some early breathing room.
The Chancellors sit atop of the West Valley League standings with an unscathed record. They still have some tough outings coming up, but Chatsworth won’t take any team for granted.
Boys volleyball notebook: Chatsworth ready to battle El Camino Real
“Beyond important,” Nilon said of the team’s league play. “We always want an undefeated record in league, and I don’t plan on stopping that this year. As long as we get the win, it doesn’t matter if I play well, the win is number one.”
The Chancellors’ offense ran fluidly with senior setter Patrick McCarty running the show. McCarty rarely called for help and chased numerous second touches, which led to an optimal attack en route to over 25 assists.
“(McCarty’s) worked really hard,” said Chatsworth coach Sina Aghassy. “For three years, he backed up an All-City player of the year, and so now that he has the opportunity, he’s really just taken it and done a great job.”
Chatsworth appeared out of system when McCarty made a quick heads-up play late in the second set. The setter panic-bumped a shanked pass on the right side of the court, which in turn caught the Royals out of system, and sailed to the outside where Nilon was ready and slammed down an uncontested kill.
“It’s Patrick, he’s insanely talented, as well as everybody on the team,” Nilon said. “I have the utmost trust of not only him, but everybody on the team.”
The Royals played well despite the absence of senior captain Tyler Lee. Christian Romero led El Camino with 11 kills while middle blocker Dev Vunman added seven kills and three blocks.
Nilon’s return is big boost for Chatsworth, which is trying to win its third straight LA City Section Open Division championship.
The Chancellors returned over a dozen players from last season’s team, but they have faced a ton of adversity. They are without senior Chase Dunn, a focal point of the offense at the outside spot. A knee injury has ended his senior season.
The team also was without 6-foot-8 middle Taj Unuakhalu for several weeks because he was finishing up the basketball season. He is now ramping up his minutes for the volleyball team.
The middle played two sets Wednesday and tallied five kills and three blocks.
“We’re getting healthier,” Aghassy said. “You saw Taj a little bit today for two sets. I think we’re progressing in the right direction, just from a health and availability standpoint. But when more guys are healthy, they’re able to find more of a rhythm. It was a little bit of a bummer on the other side of the net that their best player wasn’t on the court. He got hurt, but we’re all just kind of preparing for a heavy load of April and May, and just getting ready for playoff volleyball.”
Both teams will now head into pool play of the Chatsworth tournament that begins Friday. Each team is slated for plenty of big tests from City and Southern Section opponents.
“We’re just looking to see some high level volleyball,” Aghassy said. “We have some really great teams coming down, like Redondo and Long Beach Poly, some teams down from the Southern Section. So just looking to get better as the weekend goes on. We have a lot of depth, so we want to test some of that depth and see what we’ve got on the sidelines. But ultimately, just play some really tough matches and see if we can bring it home to Chatsworth.”