Bishop Diego, a school of less than 300 students, proved it could hang with the big boys in Tuesday night’s CIF boys volleyball Division II playoff opener. The Cardinals headed down to face Irvine High, a school over 10 times bigger, and fell just short in a hard-fought 25-21, 25-21, 25-27, 25-21 loss.
“We had a great crowd come down despite the match being so far away, and it was a really good atmosphere to play in,” said coach Jason Donnelly. “I thought that despite some critical errors at crucial spots in the match, we competed all the way through and proved that we can play with just about anybody.”
Senior Johnny Brand, who will be taking his talents to SBCC to play next year, pounded 18 kills while Brandon Gonzalez had nine and Robert Connolly tallied eight. The Cardinals had some jitters to deal with and missed 14 serves in the match, which made the difference late in each set.
Ben Kwock ended his career with a 7-dig performance, while Chris Helkey racked up four blocks and six kills in the middle.
The third set was a nail-biter all the way through to extra points, when a missed serve by Irvine opened the door and the Cardinals stepped through.
“To fight like we did to stay alive in that set was awesome to see. We were as fired up as we’d been all season after that final ball went down, and I really thought from that point we would rally and win the match,” said Donnelly.
Bishop finishes at 13-9 in Donnelly’s first year at the helm.
