The Santa Barbara Volleyball Club boys teams played in their first regular season tournament for the Southern California Volleyball Association.
17-Blue team had a successful day finishing 3-2 for the day in Division 4 and moving itself up in the overall rankings. The team finished 2-1 in pool play rounds, but received 3rd going into playoffs due to a 3-way tie point ratio tiebreaker. The team opened up with a 3 set win over SJH 18s and beat Club Vegas 18Red in 2 sets, then dropped a close 2-set match to Ohana 17s.
Coach Dillan Bennett mentioned several players, “Conner Dougherty, Jeffrey Araki and Hayden Millington were our standouts today. Conner blocked a few balls in key moments while Jeffrey played very disciplined defense and communicated well on the court. Hayden had strong passing with an automatic side out efficiency.” The team went 1-1 in playoffs beating Seaside South 18-1 25-20 before barely giving up the final match 24-26 to Club Wood 18-1.
The 18-Blue won its Division 3 over the weekend, going 2-1 in pool play and 2-0 in playoffs. The team beat Maos 18s in 2-sets in the early morning, but dropped a hard fought 3-setter to Westlake 18s 28-30, 25-19, 14-16. The team finished pool with a 2-set win over Epic 18Trever, and moved on to playoffs to win the division 3.
“After losing our second match in pool, we had a must win in the third match to stay in the top playoff bracket and didn’t disappoint. We beat Epic in two straight and got momentum rolling for our playoff games,” remarked Coach Armen Zakarian. “Drew Kenyon had an absolutely spectacular day for our squad. He was unstoppable from the right side, crushing balls from the front and back row and was a wall defensively, shutting down hitter after hitter. Carl Mendoza was steady all day at the libero position, and really stepped up come playoff time with steady passing and amazing defensive plays.” The team edged out Legacy 17Elite 26-24 in the semi-final round, and finished their day with a win over Westlake 18s. “In our last playoff match, we had a rematch with the team that beat us in pool.
Dalton smith came in as a serving sub and broke the game open with a huge 5 point run that gave us a lead that we wouldn’t relinquish. We won the match and moved up a division. The boys are happy and ready to get back to work!”
The teams next compete in the Jr. National Qualifier the first weekend of January.
