Viewpoint volleyball defends its crown

STEPHEN DORMAN/Acorn Newspapers THE DYNASTY-The Viewpoint boys' volleyball team poses for pictures following its victory over Oakwood in the CIF-SS Division V championship match. It was the Patriots' second straight title. Step aside New England, Calabasas is home to the newest Patriot dynasty.

The Viewpoint Patriots dominated Oakwood in three games (25-19, 25-19, 25-14) during the CIF-SS Division V boys' volleyball championship match Saturday afternoon at Cypress College.

With the victory, Viewpoint (30-4) captured its second consecutive CIF championship. Oakwood finished the season with a 20-7 overall mark.

"They came to play today," head coach Mike Talamantes said. "I didn't know we were going to come out and perform like we did, but they played as well as they possibly could."

After battling through 10 ties and four lead changes early on, the Patriots scored nine of Game 1's final 12 points to secure the opening game.

Senior opposite Matt Morris put away the Game 1 victory with a powerful kill.

"We didn't want to come out flat," Morris said. "We needed to win the first game. In the last match against Oakwood, we lost the first game. We needed to come out much stronger, and to put that winning kill away was a nice way to help."

Viewpoint raced out to a 5-0 lead in the second game and had to fight off only one significant challenge from Oakwood from that point on-the Gorillas narrowed the gap to 7-6 but were never able to get any closer.

In Game 3, with their spirits nearly broken, Oakwood fell behind 15-4 and was never able to regroup as Viewpoint steamrolled to an easy win in the deciding game.

Sophomore opposite Hunter Carlin, a 6-foot-4 left-hander, logged the match-clinching block for the Patriots.

"Last year I was a freshman and it felt really good to win CIF," Carlin said. "But I wasn't playing a lot then, I was riding the bench. This year I got to play and it just feels that much better."

Carlin said making the final block was "definitely something I'll always remember."

During the final week of the regular season, Viewpoint lost to Oakwood when they were without sophomore star Matt Talamantes, the younger brother of the Patriots' head coach.

Because the Liberty League rivals had split their regular-season contests, with both squads winning at home, they also ended up sharing the league championship.

When the playoff seeding were released, however, Oakwood received the No. 1 seed overall while Viewpoint was seeded second.

Coach Talamantes said his squad was on a mission to prove they should've been the topranked team entering the playoffs, and they left little doubt to the contrary when all was said and done.

Viewpoint lost only one game during four postseason matches.

Furthermore, in the title game against Oakwood, the Patriots fell behind 8-7 in Game 1 but never trailed again for the remainder of the afternoon.

"It was a dominant, dominant performance by this group of guys," Talamantes said. "(The championship match) was our best of the season. It was one of the best matches I've ever been a part of."

In last year's CIF title match, Viewpoint lost the first two games against Pasadena Poly before rallying for a dramatic victory. This season's title was a little easier on the nerves, said Matt Talamantes, one of only four returning players from the 2005 varsity team.

"I prefer to dominate," Talamantes said. "Last year we were down 0-2 and it was like, 'Wow!' It was much better winning like this. We certainly showed who the better team was."

While this title match was a bit easier on his heart, Coach Talamantes said repeating as

champions was a daunting challenge from the first day of the season to the last ball hit the hardwood.

"It's harder to repeat just because we've had a target on our back the entire season," the coach said. "Other teams knew who we were, so the guys had to step up and accept the challenge."

The younger Talamantes believes Viewpoint has officially put itself in the running for dynasty status among area volleyball programs.

"I think so," he said "We've got a good core of people and we're rolling. No one can stop us now."