Nick Clark gets a pep talk from Alex Biedul before serving in the fourth game on Thursday.
Santa Barbara High’s full arsenal was on display Thursday night at J.R. Richards Gym, as the Dons used a variety of weapons to defeat San Marcos 25-15, 25-16, 23-25, 25-19 in a Channel League matchup.
“Our crowd was with us the whole time. We just brought it,” said Santa Barbara captain Nick Clark. “The third game we struggled a little bit with our passing and serving but we battled back in the fourth game.”
The first two?
“We played unreal.”
The Royals react to a big-time play from Kyle Estabrooks(3).
Clark tallied six kills, eight digs and three aces on the night.
“I thought we ran a really balanced attack,” said Dons head coach Chad Arneson.
Casey Slaught and Alex Biedul shared the team lead in kills with 11 each. Holden Ploch added eight more.
The Royals rallied to take game three, highlighted by Kyle Estabrooks’ diving-out-of-bounds-no-look save that dropped just inside the Dons’ service line to give San Marcos a 21-19 lead.
“That was just an adrenaline rush,” Estabrooks said.
The Royals built a 24-20 lead soon after, and closed it out after the Dons made one last little push.
“We started to serve tougher and our serve-receive started to take hold a little bit,” said Royals head coach Roger Kuntz. “Santa Barbara scouted us, they know where we’re going to go most of the time, so we have to make sure our ball control is strong.”
San Marcos continued to play well into the fourth game, taking an 8-4 lead and still ahead at 13-12. But just like that, Santa Barbara put together a 6-0 run and went from trailing to holding a commanding 18-13 lead.
The Dons improve to 2-0 in league while San Marcos falls to 0-2. Both teams are off for Spring Break and don’t play again until April.
“I’d rather be 2-0 but we’ve played two tough teams this week,” Kuntz said. “I don’t think anyone is going to come out of league this year without any losses so I think our goals are still intact.”
The Royals are 11-4 overall but lost key player Johnny Manzo to injury two weeks ago.
Santa Barbara is 8-4 and also lost a key player to injury recently as starting setter Gavin Trudeau is out for several weeks. Sophomore Ryan Worley has come on the last two games and performed admirably.
“Big props to him. He looked like a veteran out there for a big Channel League match,” Arneson said.
