With the Cerritos High boys' volleyball team seemingly digging everything, Oak Park had to dig a little deeper.

Offensively and defensively, it did just that.

Rallying from a 2-1 deficit in games, the Eagles went a little deeper into the list of their offensive options and raised their game defensively to outlast visiting Cerritos 23-25, 25-10, 18-25, 25-16, 15-11 in a CIF-Southern Section Division IV quarterfinal on Friday night.

Top-seeded Oak Park (22-4) advances to play Bishop Montgomery or Torrance in a semifinal Wednesday. Cerritos finishes 26-3.

Oak Park found itself a game from elimination in part because of the quality of Cerritos' defense, and in part because the Eagles were not consistently at their best.

"They're the best defensive team we've seen all year," said senior middle blocker Stephen Thompson, who finished with a team-leading 24 kills. "They made some plays we really didn't expect, and they played with a lot of heart the entire match. They really caught us off guard with their entire offense. They ran a great offense on us."

Thompson had two dominant stretches in the match — a sequence of four kills and service ace to stake Oak Park to an early 6-3 lead in the second game, and five straight points on kills or blocks in the final game to get the Eagles to match point at 14-11.

But it was Jeff Sakaida who had the kill to close out the match, concluding a night in which he backed the efforts of Thompson and Jared Furlong (17 kills) with nine kills of his own.

"They had two guys coming in on me on the outside," Thompson said of that final point. "Adam (Quinn, the Eagles setter) made the great choice going out to Jeff, and Jeff put it down."

Quinn said Sakaida "really stepped up tonight, and that was a big part of the match."

It was a vital performance, the setter said, because of Cerritos' defensive toughness.

"That is a really good team," said Quinn. " I went to Jeff more than usual. They were expecting more and more of me going to Stephen and Jared, so I had to try something new. And he got it done when we went there."

Oak Park coach Patrick Quinn agreed that Sakaida "stepped up in Games 4 and 5, big time. He's been struggling lately, and I've been trying to find the answer, playing different kids. Tonight, he came through."

The Eagles coach credited Cerritos, but also saw flaws in his team's play.

"Game 1, we had the game, and we just gave it away," he said. (The Eagles led 23-21 but gave up the final four points on hitting or severing errors). "Game 2, we came out much better, and blew them out, and Game 3, we were inconsistent again.

"Maybe it's because they were good. I'm sure that has something to do with it," he said, noting that with an opponent keeping the ball in play, there are more opportunities for mistakes.

Ultimately, though, Oak Park rose to the challenge.

Brendan Keane led the Eagles with nine digs, while Thompson had seven blocks and Quinn finished with 48 assists. For Cerritos, Michael Sir had 18 kills and Danny Nguyen had 14.

"They were better than I thought," said Patrick Quinn. "I knew they were going to be scrappy, but they had size. They had guys hitting out of the back row like we do, and they had really smart players. That's the thing you never know until you play a team."