As always, the Dos Pueblos Invitational was a hectic, long, noisy day of boys volleyball at the Thunderdome. If you were there, you’re still hearing whistles being blown in your head.
But it was certainly a worthwhile day for DP and San Marcos, as both the Royals and Chargers won their pools with 7-1 records and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Bishop Diego, meanwhile, struggled to a 1-7 record in the morning’s pool play, having to wake up early after Friday night’s marathon 5-game loss to Cathedral City.
“We definitely got better today in this tournament, and that’s always my main goal,” said DP head coach Chris Hughes. “We played some really good volleyball, especially in the playoffs.”
After taking down Claremont in their first playoff match, the Chargers hopped onto a roller-coaster of a match with St. Francis, losing 25-18, 23-25, 18-16. Will McCracken’s powerful arm-swing got DP going early in the third set, and a beautiful cross-court kill from middle blocker Cody Zoesch had the Chargers up 10-9. St. Francis, however, had the extra big play down the stretch.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the first game, but then to have enough character to come back and win that second game was very good… Losing to a team like St. Francis, you can still keep your heads up. I was proud of my guys,” said Hughes.
McCracken also felt like the Chargers took positive strides on the day, even though he thought they had a good shot at winning the whole thing.
“We all felt like we had a great chance at winning this tournament, but we knew that St. Francis and Bellarmine would be the teams to beat, and I guess St. Francis got the better of us in that,” he said.
Bellarmine Prep ended up the eventual champion, defeating Crespi 25-23, 26-24 in the title match.
Crespi was the last opponent that San Marcos would face. The Celts took down the Royals in their second-round contest 25-23, 18-25, 15-5. It was a close battle until the start of the third, when the Royals completely ran out of gas and fell into a 7-0 hole.
San Marcos had a strong day passing, and Andrew Grimes had some emphatic kills that certified him as one of the biggest hitters in the building. The Royals put two big notches in their belts by beating a strong Oaks Christian program in pool play, and then taking down San Luis Obispo in their first playoff match.
The Tigers defeated San Marcos at the Thunderhut on Thursday, and it was a nice mark of revenge for the Royals.
“Both of those wins were nice for us, but I have to say the win against San Luis was better,” said coach Roger Kuntz with a grin. “I was talking to (SLO coach) John Hastings earlier in the day and telling him that I thought maybe we were out-coached on Thursday, but I’m hoping we got some of that back today.”
Articulate senior setter Erik Holliday was bright-eyed when talking about his team’s performance on the day, particularly after a less-than-satisfying performance at the Best of the West Tournament last weekend.
“Today was definitely a confidence-booster after last weekend,” said Holliday. “We were working on a lot this week. A lot of fundamentals and passing and closing the block, those kinds of things. It was good to see us execute that throughout the day today.”
Bishop had a tough time in a tough pool, falling to Tri-Valley League foe Oak Park in straight sets before doing the same thanks to a passing breakdown against Harvard-Westlake.
