A first-round playoff exit for the Camarillo High boys volleyball team last spring following its most successful season in recent history left all the team’s returning players feeling the same thing.
Hunger.
But with graduation claiming Concordia University-bound setter Matt Fisher, The Star’s 2024-25 Boys Volleyball Player of the Year, Camarillo head coach Stephen Zavala had questions about how his group would adjust to playing without its star.
“I’ll be straightforward,” Zavala said. “I had my doubts.”
The Scorpions have had all the answers.
Camarillo (25-3) is nearing the end of a dominant regular season campaign. The Scorpions are unbeaten against local teams, and no team in the Coastal Canyon League has managed to take a single set off of the Scorpions, who are the 11th-ranked team in the CIF-Southern Section.
This season marked the most wins for Camarillo since 2012-13, when he Scorpions won 29 matches and reached the CIF-SS Division 3 championship match before falling to South Pasadena.
“At the end of the day, we are going to win together, lose together. Let’s just play,” Zavala said. “They have overcome adversity every time.”
The first challenge was adjusting to playing without Fisher, a dominant offensive force who regularly led the team in assists and kills last season.Luckily for the Scorpions, they already had an up-and-coming player ready to prove himself. Senior setter Zenji Arias, a JV player last season, has blossomed in a varsity role.
“He kind of came out of nowhere and really took charge of the offense. Everyone just clicked with him,” Zavala said. “I knew we were going to have the offense, I knew we were going to have the defense. It was just that missing piece, and he has really stepped up.”
Arias has collected 698 assists this season for Camarillo, assisting on nearly nine kills per set for the team’s high-powered offense.
That offense is powered by one of the most athletic groups of hitters assembled across the section. With eight different players listed at 6-foot-3 or taller, the Scorpions are massive.
They are led by high-flying Stanley Filiaga, a 6-3 outside with a nearly 40-inch vertical jump playing volleyball for just his second season. The senior’s thunderous spikes send the ball careening off the floor or an unlucky defender and back up into the ceiling of the Camarillo High gym.
“It is one of my favorite things to do, just to show off how high I can get,” Filiaga said. “I try to swing at my highest point and swing higher every time, get a kill whenever I can.”
Filiaga and his big arm have already racked up 317 kills and counting for this season.
“Watching him here, it’s the next level,” Zavala said. “A kid that can jump almost 40 inches off the ground, it is like a grown man playing against kids. It is just fun watching that. Just throw the ball up, he will go get it.”
With all that athleticism, the Scorpions’ setting style has shifted from a fast pace aimed at keeping opposing defenses on their toes to slower, higher sets that let their hitters go and get over the block with power.
“Slow is fast — we slowed it down,” Zavala said, then gestured to Filiaga. “This guy, he goes over the blocks, so let’s really slow it down and have him just go get the ball. And it works.”
That’s not the only thing that’s changed, according to captain and senior libero Micah West. Their identity has shifted as well.
“We are scrappier this year,” West said. “Everybody is together, and when you play together with no egos and trust each other, good stuff happens on the court and it is really fun to watch.”
Camarillo has already swept its season series with Coastal Canyon League heavyweight Royal to control its destiny heading into its final two league matches.
The Scorpions have a chance to clinch the title outright with a victory over Simi Valley on the road on April 16 before finishing the regular season at Oak Park on April 21.
Dominic Massimino is a staff writer for The Star. He can be reached at dominic.massimino@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcsdominic on Twitter and Instagram.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: A look inside Camarillo boys volleyball team’s dominant season
Reporting by Dominic Massimino, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
