Mira Costa had the championship trophy in hand and was headed home before the Karch Kiraly Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions was completed Saturday.
The top-ranked Mustangs swept Esperanza, 25-12, 25-23, 25-20, in the final to complete an impressive run in which they lost only one set in four matches.
But the lights were still on at J.R. Richards Gym, as the host Santa Barbara Dons were making an amazing comeback in the consolation final against Long Beach Wilson.
After falling apart in the second and third sets, Santa Barbara started clicking and rallied for a 25-20, 19-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-9 victory.
The confidence-boosting performance capped a positive day for the local teams.
Earlier in the day, Santa Barbara outlasted long-time nemesis Valencia in five games (22-25, 25-23, 25-17, 19-25, 15-12).
Dos Pueblos grabbed seventh place after splitting with the two Fresno area powerhouse programs. After falling to Clovis West (26-24 25-15 25-23), the Chargers regrouped and swept Buchanan (25-21, 25-22, 25-23).
San Marcos bounced back to win two matches on Saturday and finished in 13th place. The Royals beat Santa Ynez (25-12, 25-16, 23-25, 25-20) and Ventura (24-26, 25-21, 25-18, 25-15).
Mira Costa was virtually unstoppable in the tournament. Its only loss came in the third set against Newport Harbor in the semifinals.
Jace Olsen, a 6-7 senior outside bomber, was named the tournament’s MVP and teammates Eric Mochalski and Kevin Donahue were selected to the all-tournament team.
“The ceiling is very high for this team,” said co-coach Sean Shoptaw of the 16-1 Mustangs. “We hold them with a pretty high bar in front of them. They’re getting close to it, but we still got work to do, and at this point in the season we’re happy.”
And why not?
The Mustangs’ only match loss came against Hawaii power Punahou High at the Best of the West Tournament. Besides beating No. 8 Newport Harbor and No. 6 Esperanza in Santa Barbara, they swept No. 2 Loyola.
“When we play well, we’re going to be a tough team to deal with,” warned Shoptaw.
Santa Barbara found itself in a tough situation against Long Beach Wilson. The Dons lost their momentum and were being dominated by the Bruins.
But they turned things around in the fourth set. Senior Alec Smythe started making plays at the net, Tristan Cronshaw hustled in the back court to keep balls alive, Clifford Anderson started dominating in the middle and Casey Slaught came off the bench to provide a spark.
“What’s so great about it is we fought so hard for that,” Santa Barbara coach Chad Arneson said. “For some reason, Long Beach Wilson seems to bring out the best in us.
We always have these great battles against them. I think our kids really needed that game as a team. It’s just a confidence booster for us going (back) into Channel League, getting prepared for San Marcos and DP.”
The Dons (9-4) showed their coach that they have grit.
In the fifth set, the Dons overcame a referee’s call against them at 9-8 and took control. Holden Ploch put a ball away in the middle and Smythe followed with a kill after a Cronshaw dig to go up 11-9. Three blocks by Anderson and one by Smythe finished off Wilson.
“It’s one of those games were we learned out to fight and earn every point,” Arneson said. “It’s not just going to come to you, you got to earn it, that starts by playing defense and making some good blocks, playing your heart out all of the time. I thought the kids never gave up and showed when you start to play hard and earning your points, good things start to happen. You could see from that win. I am so proud of the kids and the seniors. The seniors really stepped it up.
“Overall, it was great match.”
Smythe paced the Dons attack with 17 kills and six blocks.
“He was in a little slump there for a bit and I was worried, but he overcame that and rose to the occasion. That’s why he’s our captain. He really responded well,” said Arneson.
Clifford had eight kills and an impressive 12 blocks.
“He struggled offensively, but his net play and blocking was pretty nice,” said Arneson.
The coach also praised the ball distribution of setter Gavin Trudeau and Cronshaw’s defense.
“For us to go into this tournament and lose one match, that’s pretty good. I’m satisfied with that. But we still have a lot of work to do. We need these kind of matches to gain some confidence,” Arneson said.
San Marcos made a nice turnaround after losing its first two matches of the tournament.
“We’re real happy because one of those wins came against our Channel League opponent, and we host them on Tuesday for the first time,” San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz said about Ventura.
The Royals and Cougars figure to battle it out for one of the league’s three CIF playoff spots.
“Ventura has gotten better,” Kuntz said. “Even though they were missing a couple of their players, I was pleased with our level of play. I look at our stats and we became very balanced. I think that’s going to be a key against Santa Barbara on Thursday and Ventura on Tuesday.”
The Royals (9-7) got more production from middles Ian McFarlane and Josh Guild, which made Kuntz happy.
“We ran a lot of different things with them and I was real pleased at what I saw in the middle,” Kuntz said. “Our leadership on the outside with Jackson Kuntz and Johnny Manzo is clearly where our strength is.”
Dos Pueblos (15-7) got yeoman’s work from its middles, Robbie Mestas and Michael Ellsworth, against the Fresno schools.
“Our middles rarely subbed out and they participated in every block and hitting attack, and that’s huge,” DP coach Chris Hughes said.
Team captain Will McCracken is the catalyst to the Chargers attack. He continually came through on big points in the win over Buchanan. He finished off the first two sets with kills and tied the third set at 22 and 23 on a solo block and spike through the block.
“Will is our main guy for sure,” said Hughes, who also cited the play of Jay Larinan.
McCracken said the tournament showed “that we can definitely hang with anyone in (CIF) Division 1, and it shows in the playoffs we can go far.”
Hughes agreed that the TOC was a good measuring stick for his team as it enters the stretch run of league play before CIF.
“Overall, I’m very happy. I told the guys I’m glad we didn’t play anybody we played in the past. It’s nice to play new teams and see things we’re going to see in the CIF playoffs.
“You’re always happy when you get better,” he added. “I thought we saw a lot of things we don’t normally see in Channel League and that makes it better. And, the guys stepped up.”
In other action, Newport Harbor outlasted Santa Margarita (25-19, 25-23, 18-25, 18-25, 16-4) for third place and Clovis West swept Palisades Charger (25-20, 25-17, 25-14) for fifth.
The other members of the all-tournament team were Chris Drein and Greg Anderson of Esperanza, Jackson Carmak of Newport Harbor, Ryan Baine of Santa Margarita, Chris Wong of Clovis West and Kene Izvchukwu of Palisades Charter.
