With the regular season winding down and CIF playoffs on the horizon, several Mission Bay High spring sports teams are heading toward the finish line. Girls sand volleyball
In girls sand volleyball action, Mission Bay is 5-2 in the division entering action this week.
The Bucs had two teams lose their first games, only to come back and win the next two. “We played a tough match against University City, but our varsity girls never quit,” Mission Bay head coach Brad Wills noted.
According to Wills, seniors Alex Briski and Maddie Tandy are true leaders, leading the Bucs as the “A” team with experience, excellence, and solid play week after week. Wills also noted that sophomore Bethany Kepner is an offensive machine and freshman Juliette Castner a defensive machine. “They complement each other very well,” Wills remarked.
“Freshmen Chloe Gallego and Kate Geenen round out the third varsity team with excellent defense and smart offense,” Wills added. “Watch for these two teams to continue to do great things in the future as they grow in the sport.” The team’s last league match is Thursday (May 4) against Pacific Ridge. According to Wills, a win would close out the season with a 6-2 record heading into the playoffs, the following week. “We would like to win our division and keep that momentum as we get set for the playoffs,” Wills added. The winner of the “Open” division will go to (for the first time) state playoffs in Santa Monica at Ocean Park. Boys volleyball
In boys volleyball action, Mission Bay pulled out a 3-0 victory against San Diego last week to complete a season sweep of the Cavers.  Alex Torres, Jesus Zarate and Zander Caufield led the team in kills. Zarate led the team in aces and Jacob Cayatano in assists.  Two days later, the Bucs squared off against Kearny High and lost a close four-set match by scores of 23-25, 24-26, and 23-25.  Zarate led the team in both kills and aces.  “The boys are playing really well right now, but we struggle at times with consistency,” Mission Bay head coach Nikki Caufield commented. “Our middle blockers Stephen Tarbell and Josh Leone are starting to slowly get involved in our offense and getting quite a few blocks. We need to tighten up our passing and we will pull out the close games.”
The Bucs are still in the playoff hunt; it will depend on the results of their matches this week against Coronado and Lincoln.  “As none of our players has more than two years experience, they are playing really well,” Caufield added.
Torres and Zarate are in the top four in Division IV in hitting percentage, respectively, and Zarate leads Division IV in aces. Swim teams
In the swimming pool, head coach John Knight’s boys and girls teams have seen improvements this season.
“We’ve had tremendous growth this season, both in number of swimmers and in personal bests,” Knight commented. “We have gone from having 21 swimmers last year to 33 this year. Every meet, there are swimmers taking seconds off their previous best. Our league record stands at 3-2 for girls and 2-3 for boys.”
This week, Mission Bay was slated to compete at City Conference championships, with the CIF championships being held next week. 
According to Knight, Camila Pelt and Kiley Knight each qualified for two individual swims in the City meet. All of Mission Bay’s relay teams also qualified. Other girls who will be competing this week include Izanna Hypse, Ciara Gray, Clemence Tardivel, Jeanne Picard, Rory Knight, Blu Keegan, Zoe Wynne, and Keleah Valverde-Flores. The boys will be represented by Jackson Combs, Whitney Snead, Ethan Gathright, Andy Dorris, Kyle Baker, Alex Bauer, Forrest Wells, Sean Watson, Tanner Delong, Jake Halvin, and Joe Monaco. 
“We are looking forward to swimming our fastest times in the next two weeks,” John Knight remarked. “Hopefully all our hard work will pay off.”