Keaton Arutian of Dos Pueblos greeted Santa Barbara back from its trip to Hawaii by rattling the Dons with some nasty jump serves Tuesday night at J.R. Richards Gym.
The Dons managed to overcome six Arutian aces and several passing breakdowns he caused, and fought back from a 2-1 deficit in sets to outlast the visiting Chargers 25-19, 20-25, 19-25, 25-18, 16-14, in an emotional Channel League match.
Santa Barbara improves to 11-5 and 3-0 in league play, while Dos Pueblos is 9-8, 1-1.
After being dominated in the third-set, when Arutian served up seven straight points to start the set, the Dons buckled down and regained momentum.
“We just kind of lost our cool in that third game,” Dons senior middle Clifford Anderson said. “Coach told us to just calm down and relax out there.”
Holden Ploch of Santa Barbara follows through on a big hit against Dos Pueblos during five-set Channel League match won by the Dons.
Santa Barbara broke open a tight fourth set on back-to-back kills by Casey Slaught on the outside to open up a 16-12 lead. The middles then took charge. Anderson stuffed a DP attack for a 22-16 advantage and Holden Ploch ended a rally with a kill to make it 24-18.
A mishandled ball by DP after a terrific saving dig by Niko Piesons gave Santa Barbara the final point of the set.
The Chargers, with the lefty Arutian at the service line, started the fifth set with a 3-0 lead.
“He can flat-out serve,” DP coach Chris Hughes said of Arutian. “I told Carson Clark’s dad that we modeled his serve after (the UC Irvine and former Santa Barbara High star) Carson Clark, a lefthander. He spins the ball with the left hand from the right side of the court. That’s a tough ball to pass. It’s got a weird spin and there’s a lot of heat to it.”
Anderson helped Santa Barbara work its way back to regain the lead at 9-7. The 6-9 UCLA-bound senior middle, who was making his season debut after being sidelined with a herniated disc in his back, put a ball down to start a three-point run that gave the Dons a 7-6 lead. After a DP serving error, he combined with Alex Biedul on a block and later added a solo block to put his team up 12-7.
“I was so happy for him to get out there and finally contribute to the team,” Santa Barbaa coach Chad Arneson said. “You could see that extra confidence in our team knowing we had Clifford out there. And he was a presence in the middle, and he definitely changed some outcomes in that match, especially in that fifth game. That was important for us.”
Although his timing is slightly off from not playing, Anderson said he’s glad to be back on the court again.
“It’s a blast playing with the team, being able to contribute and help them out any way possible,” he said.
Despite being down by five in the 15-point fifth set, Dos Pueblos continued to battle. Another big dig by Plesons that led to a kill by Gabe Burdick narrowed the deficit to 14-13.
On the next play, the Dons thought they won the match when Biedul ripped a ball off the block of Mansai Conner and Jackson. The SBHS players and coaches started celebrating, but their celebration quickly turned to disbelief as the floor referee ruled the ball landed inside the court.
That kept DP’s hopes alive.
“I couldn’t be prouder for a young team to compete like that,” said Hughes, who lost 13 seniors last season. “That’s all you want, you want to be in it at the end, and we were in it.”
The Charger defense scrambled to pick up another Dons’ attack, but on the bump return the ball sailed over the end line.
Ploch finished the match and a long rally with a thundering spike in the middle.
“Good teams find a way to win and we came out at the end of that stick,” said Arneson. “It was a great win for us. We knew coming in this was going to be a big rivalry game and DP was going to give it their all. I have to give them credit, they played well, scrappy defense.
“Arutian frustrated us a lot with his jump serving and took us out of system,” Arneson added. “But overall, I was pleasd with our performance. It’s definitely a good win coming back from Hawaii without too much rest. Our boys responded really well. I think this was the kind of game we were hoping to have, and our kids rose to the occassion and did a great job.”
Biedul led a balanced Santa Barbara offense with 11 kills. Slaught added nine, Anderson seven and eight blocks and Ploch picked up six kills. Nick Clark scooped up 16 digs.
Gabe Burdick paced the Chargers with 23 kills, five blocks and three digs. Jay Larinan added seven kills, Wopat had five blocks, Connor had four kills and five blocks, and Arutian picked up five digs to go with his six aces.
