Providence Boys Volleyball Falls to Rio Hondo Prep in Three Sets

Providence dropped a Liberty League match to Rio Hondo Prep on Friday night, 25-23, 25-15, 25-22, at the Fritz B. Burns Activity Center. Three sets. The Pioneers didn’t get one.

Head coach Steven Tozlian knew going in that Rio Hondo’s offense wasn’t going to be easy to contain. “Rio Hondo has a lot of fire power, so we went in knowing we had to get some blocks,” Tozlian said. “I think we did a good job getting touches and slowing down Rio’s big hitters. I want to compliment the Rio Hondo setter and their offense in general.” That’s a coach being honest about a loss without making excuses for it, and the box score backed him up in places.

The Kares came in at 16-4 overall. More telling: they were 7-0 in Liberty League play, which made Friday’s visit to the Burns Activity Center a measuring stick match for Providence regardless of how the final score read. The Pioneers sit at 10-5 on the year and 2-2 in league. They’re not out of contention, but they can’t afford to trade sets with the top teams and walk away with nothing.

Set one had the makings of an upset. Providence jumped out fast, winning the first 5 points before Junior Jacob Pniowsky added a block to push it to 5-0. Rio Hondo answered with 5 straight of their own to tie it, freshman setter William Wu mixing in an ace during that run. The set stayed competitive from there. Junior Jaden Casal’s push made it 8-5 Providence. A Pniowsky spike extended it to 11-7. A kill from freshman Joseph Sepilian made it 14-11, and Junior Joshua Estrada’s ace stretched the lead to 16-11, sending Rio Hondo to a timeout. None of it held. Rio Hondo Prep junior outside hitter Rainn Pollock helped shift momentum, sophomore Nate Riley’s tapper pushed the visitors to 22-19, and the Kares closed it out 25-23.

Set two wasn’t close. Rio Hondo won it 25-15. That’s the set you move past quickly.

Set three is the one that’ll stay with the Providence roster. Pniowsky’s kill tied it at 3-3. Connor Wang’s push brought it even at 5-5. Junior Daniel Reyes cut the deficit to 8-5 with a kill, then put the Pioneers ahead 12-11 with an ace. Pniowsky’s service winner made it 14-12 Providence. The Burns Activity Center crowd could feel a fourth game coming.

It didn’t come.

A mishit from sophomore Cruz Camacho handed the lead back to Rio Hondo, though Reyes answered at 18-18 with a kill to keep Providence alive. Pniowsky’s kill tied it again at 20-20. Reyes dropped an ace to put the Pioneers up 22-20, and for a moment that fourth set looked real.

Pollock ended it. The Rio Hondo junior outside hitter scored 4 straight points, flipping the score from 22-20 Providence to 23-22 Rio Hondo in a matter of rallies, and his spike to make it 23-22 forced Providence into a timeout they couldn’t convert. When Pniowsky’s push hit the net, it was over. Match to the Kares.

Fifteen points separated the two teams across all three sets combined. That’s not a blowout. Sets one and three were competitive enough that Providence players know they were in it, and that’s the part that stings when you’re sitting in the gym afterward, because knowing you were close doesn’t change the column it goes in.

Boys volleyball in California’s high school system doesn’t always reward moral victories. The Kares are 7-0 in league for a reason, and Pollock’s 4-point run in the third set is exactly the kind of sequence that separates programs at that level from the ones trying to catch them. Providence’s 2-2 league record still leaves them with a path. They’ll need to win matches they’re supposed to win and steal one they aren’t.

For full coverage of the match, MyBurbank has additional details.