The first match of the season is often a sleepy affair, with coaches just trying to shuffle lineups and work out the kinks.
Not so for Santa Barbara’s boys volleyball team.
The Dons have been opening their season against Royal High School for the better part of two decades, and it’s turned into quite a little rivalry.
Taylor Fauntleroy tallied 18 kills with six aces Friday night as Santa Barbara took down the Highlanders 25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 26-24 in a charged-up atmosphere at J.R. Richards Gym.
“It’s always emotional when we play these guys,” said Royal coach Dean Borth. “It’s a friendly rivalry, but it’s a rivalry… We thought if there was any year to do it this was the year, so I think the kids might have come in a little headstrong.”
Actually, both teams were a bit headstrong, but it made for a great match.
“Everybody was really good emotionally. It’s always a concern that there will be big ups-and-downs with new and young guys, but everybody handled it really well,” said Fauntleroy.
The senior outside hitter provided a perfect example of “handling it well” early in the second set, when he found himself dealing with taunts from the Highlanders’ JV players while at the service line. As the chants of “PRESSURE, PRESSURE, PRESSURE” rained down on him, he instead put the pressure on the Royal passers, bombing two straight jump-serves for aces before pounding a kill from the back row. He made sure to give a glance into the stands after each point.
“I love when people heckle against me,” he said with a grin.
Fellow senior Chris Pratt added 14 kills in the middle and Tyler Worley had eight. Sam Biscaro made his debut at setter for the Dons and dished out 40 assists, looking right at home running the offense. Chad Arneson is in his fifth year as head coach with the team, but Biscaro is only the second starting setter Arneson has had. Andy Abayan, who was at the match Friday, started all four years of his high school career at setter before graduating.
“Sam did a great job stepping up for us. It was big for him to do that right away after four years of Andy running things,” said Arneson. “This was a good team win.”
After winning the first set, the Dons pulled out a close second frame in which the score was tied 10 times. Alec Smythe put one away from the left side late in the set and Fauntleroy tipped one down to close it out and give Santa Barbara a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Dons went up 10-7 to start the third, but the Highlanders wouldn’t go away, catching up at 11-11 and exchanging points with the Dons until Danny Preece grabbed a big solo block to put Royal up 21-19. Worley made a fantastic one-handed dig on the back line a few points later which turned into a Santa Barbara point to close the gap to 23-22, but Highlanders captain Jerame Maas ended it with another solo stuff to extend the match.
Pratt stepped up in the fourth, crushing Biscaro’s sets in the middle and throwing a few stare-downs across the net for good measure. Royal was also zoned in, however, and actually had the lead at 24-23 when the Dons called a timeout.
Fauntleroy came out and put one away from the left side and Biscaro and Alex Biedul then joined for a huge block to give Santa Barbara match point at 25-24. Smythe finished it off with an untouched ace.
“This is great for the morale of our team. We needed this right off the bat to start the season,” said Arneson. “Royal’s a great program, and this is something we can really build on.”
