The Gauchos may have been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night in Milwaukee, but there was still March Madness at the Thunderdome on Saturday.
Thirty-five boys volleyball teams packed into the arena for the 35th annual Dos Pueblos Invitational, with seven courts playing at once for most of the morning and early afternoon. The host Chargers went undefeated in pool play and made it all the way to the semifinals before falling to a Bellarmine Prep squad which was just too big up front. The Bells went on to win the tournament over Crespi.
Dos Pueblos’ Wade Robinson
Santa Barbara High also went 8-0 in its pool and made it to the semifinals, where the Dons fell to Crespi in three sets. Meanwhile, San Marcos finished third in its pool by just six points and was later stalled by St. Augustine in the second round of the Bronze Division playoffs. Bishop Diego had a rough outing, failing to win a set in pool play.
While a dream match-up between DP and Santa Barbara in the title match didn’t materialize, the teams’ similar performances in the tourney certainly added to the hype of Tuesday’s showdown at Dos Pueblos, which will be televised on Cox Channel 8.
Santa Barbara High coach Chad Arneson hasn’t lost a Channel League match over the past five seasons, and Dos Pueblos coach Chris Hughes thinks that the mighty Dons are perhaps more vulnerable this year than they’ve been since the streak began.
“That’s a good question, and I believe so. It’s the first year that I’ve played Santa Barbara and I look over there and their guys look like my guys, and that makes me excited,” he said. “The thing is, they can still play, and it’s not to take anything away from them. It’s just I don’t see a Carson Clark over there or a (Jeremy) Casebeer or an Andy Abayan, and I think that gives teams a lot of hope.”
The Chargers also have hope thanks to their lights-out defense, which was led by senior libero Cole Arutian all day Saturday. Arutian made a handful of highlight-reel digs of Bellarmine’s booming hitters, and the Chargers’ peskiness had them in position to win against the Bells. The teams were deadlocked at 21-21 in the first set and were back-and-forth in the early stages of the second game, but Bellarmine ended up winning 25-23, 25-18.
“They had a really good setter and their offense was quick,” said Arutian. “I think we had a good blocks up there and the defense was doing great. Everything was good, but they were just a really solid team.”
Santa Barbara’s Holden Ploch.
Hughes couldn’t say enough about the play of Arutian.
“We played great defense, and he was outstanding today. I got compliment after compliment from other coaches about him, especially the Bellarmine coach,” said Hughes. “He dug plenty of rockets, and the best thing is that most of his digs were settable balls.”
The Chargers earned a bye in the first round of the Gold Division playoffs, and went on to beat Taft 25-20, 25-22 to advance to the semifinals. The Dons took out Saugus in the first round of the playoffs — 27-25, 25-19 — and then beat Westlake 25-19, 25-23 before falling to Crespi.
Santa Barbara was thankful to get a long day of games under its belt, as it is adjusting to new setter Gavin Trudeau, a sophomore transfer from Arroyo Grande who was just cleared to play earlier in the week. He looked comfortable running the offense, and 6-foot-8 middle blocker Clifford Anderson agreed.
“For having only been with us for four days, the connection is already pretty good, but it’s going to get better and better as we go on. It’s going to be exciting when everything starts clicking,” he said.
Trudeau said that there are definitely some things to get used to when it comes to playing for his new team.
“I’m not really used to having that big of hitters, so I’ve gotta work on setting faster in this offense,” he said.
The Dons won the tournament title in ’06, ’07 and ’08 but didn’t enter last year. Arneson was happy to be back.
“This is a great tournament. Chris Hughes did a good job, and we’re just glad to be back here. Last year we weren’t here, and I think this team really needed tp be in this tournament,” he said.
Arneson also highlighted the strong all-around play of Alec Smyth and Alex Biedul.
San Marcos libero Kyle Estabrooks.
And as far as Tuesday goes?
“You couldn’t ask for a better scenario for that match. It’s gonna be fun, and they wanna beat us real bad,” he said. “I think whoever comes home with the dirtiest shirt is gonna be the winner.”
Bishop Diego’s shirts were probably still dirty from Friday night’s 5-set marathon loss to Cathedral, and it might have had something to do with the Cardinals’ struggles.
“We came down off of an amazing match last night against Cathedral. It was a high-energy match. We just played out of our minds, and it could be that the day after a high match like that you sink into a low. We couldn’t get out of it all day,” he said. “It was definitely not the same team we had last night.”
Two bright spots, according to Reiken, were Spencer Shull and Johnny Brand, who both did what they could to energize the rest of the squad.
“They were really trying to get us pumped up and motivated. It was a battle they fought very courageously, but they lost,” he said.
While San Marcos came up excrutiatingly short of second place in its pool, coach Roger Kuntz was feeling pretty good about the Royals’ performance by the time the afternoon rolled around. He particularly noted that after sweeping their first two matches in pool play, the Royals hung tough with Crespi.
“What we started to do is pass the ball up above the net, get our setter up there and initiate our middles. Our middles started becoming a factor, and that opened up our outsides,” he said. “It started to become beautiful volleyball.”
San Marcos opened playin the Bronze playoffs with a 23-25, 25-23, 15-9 comeback win over San Luis Obispo before falling to St. Augustine 25-19, 25-14.
First serve for Tuesday’s monster match between Santa Barbara and DP is set for 6 p.m.
Bishop Diego’s Brandon Gonzalez
