San Marcos ventured into the dimly lit, low-ceilinged confines of Santa Barbara High’s J.R. Richards Gym on Tuesday and ended up journeying all the way to a land of promise for volleyball underdogs — the fifth set, where just about anything can happen.
What happened was that Santa Barbara said “enough is enough” and ushered the rival Royals out the door by winning it decisively. Game scores in the showdown were 22-25, 25-19, 25-12, 23-25, 15-9.
Santa Barbara's Holden Ploch hits for one of his five kills.
Dons (10-4, 4-1 Channel League) sophomore Holden Ploch had a coming-of-age moment in the final frame that seemed to put the Royals (9-8, 1-3) away for good. With Santa Barbara up 9-6, Ploch took a “three” — a horizontal quick-set pushed out about six feet in front of the setter — and absolutely crushed it down the line for one of his five kills.
“That was pretty impressive. That was quite a statement right there,” said Dons coach Chad Arneson, who repeatedly praised the Royals for their efforts. “I don’t think he realizes how much power he has sometimes.”
The sophomore followed with an ace, forcing a San Marcos timeout. Santa Barbara cruised home from there, ending the match with a cross-court spike from captain Alec Smyth, who put away 20 kills in the match. Ploch’s classmate Casey Slaught added nine kills and a pair of aces, while fellow sophomore Gavin Trudeau continued to run the offense effectively.
But perhaps more surprising than the emergence of Santa Barbara’s sophomores is the improvement of the Royals, who haven’t played the Dons this tough in years.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a San Marcos team not back down and really fight against a Santa Barbara team and that was fun to watch tonight,” said Royals coach Roger Kuntz. “But we fell a little bit short, and this is an opportunity you hate to let go by.”
The Royals were balanced up front, getting 11 kills apiece from Jackson Kunz, Johnny Manzo and Zach Yinger. Libero Kyle Estabrooks was all over the court, anchoring a solid San Marcos effort in defense and passing. Kuntz is just starting to have setters Neil Holliday and John Redfield dish out “threes” and was happy with what he saw.
“It went great; I wish we could have run it more. We just didn’t execute when we needed to, and they made one heck of a dig at about 4-3 in the fifth game. Johnny Manzo went up and just pasted it, and this guy laid out at the scorer’s table to bring it back up. That was a great play,” he said.
The dig was made by Santa Barbara junior libero Mark Outwater, who like Estabrooks anchored a strong night of passing and defense for his team.
While the defense was clean all the way through, San Marcos was able to capitalize on 10 unforced errors by the Dons to win the first set. Santa Barbara bounced back in the next set, however, as Slaught put down an ace that went untouched to give the Dons a 15-14 lead that they would never relinquish.
The third frame began with a miscue on a tip and an illegal set by San Marcos. Santa Barbara’s Nick Clark then added an ace and Smyth tallied a kill and a block that put the hosts up 5-0. The Dons dominated the rest of the way, leaving the Royals helplessly waiting for a reset at the fourth game.
The fourth saw the score tied 11 times. San Marcos had a 16-12 lead after a nice tip by Redfield, but Santa Barbara clawed back and had the lead as late as 23-22 after a kill in the middle by Ploch. It was a missed serve and two straight hitting errors after that, however, as the Royals pulled it out to force the deciding fifth set.
The Dons hope that the strong fifth game will continue into Tuesday’s home match against Dos Pueblos, which swept Santa Barbara at Sovine Gym earlier in the season. It was Santa Barbara’s first Channel League loss in 40 matches.
“We need a lot of people to come out and bring the energy,” said Ploch. “We’re a team that really needs that crowd to get us going, and we want some revenge. We’re ready to go.”
San Marcos hosts Buena on Tuesday.
