San Marcos is a tournament tough team.
The Royals have won two titles this season, and on Friday they looked primed to challenge for a third one as they swept two opponents in the Santa Barbara Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions at J.R. Richards Gym.
San Marcos blitzed Newport Harbor and Mountain View-Saint Francis to reach the semifinals. The second-seeded Royals face La Costa Canyon of the San Diego Section at 10:45 a.m. at Santa Barbara High. La Costa Canyon rallied from a 2-1 deficit and beat defending tournament champion Mira Costa, 25-22, 18-25, 10-25, 25-22, 15-12, in the second round
The other semifinal pits top-seeded Fresno-Buchanan against Campolindo. They’ll play at San Marcos at 10:45. Buchanan knocked off Mountain View, 25-18, 25-21, 19-25, 25-21, while Campolindo defeated San Jose-Bellarmine Prep, 25-14, 25-17, 25-21.
Dos Pueblos and host Santa Barbara bounced back from opening-round defeats and advanced to the consolation semifinals. Dos Pueblos swept Santa Ynez (25-7, 25-14, 25-19) after losing in four against Mountain View (25-13, 28-30, 25-18, 25-21). Santa Barbara recovered from a four-set loss against La Costa Canyon (25-21, 26-28, 26-24, 25-22) and beat Simi Valley-Royal in three (25-19, 25-8, 25-12)
On Saturday, Dos Pueblos plays West Ranch at San Marcos while Santa Barbara meets Valencia at 10:45.
Baker Johnson sparked San Marcos to a pair of wins.
Baker Johnson took his game to a higher level once he stepped on the court for San Marcos on Friday. The senior was jumping like he was on a trampoline and crushing balls from the outside and the back row. He had 14 kills in both wins
Johnson also provided a spark with his defense in the back row.
“Baker Johnson had the match of his life,” San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz said after the win over Saint Francis. “He was powerful from the front row and was great in the back row.”
The Royals’ defense wore out a potent Saint Francis attack and forced the Lancers into several hitting errors.
“It’s hard to single out guys because we’re playing pretty solid team defense , which hasn’t been a trademark of our teams in the past, to tell you the truth,” Kuntz said. “Nick Rockwell was great on his right wing and Sean Estabrooks is a premium libero. He continues to be better than all these other liberos we’re hearing about. He’s better.”
San Marcos was ahead 22-21 in the first set against Saint Francis and scored three straight points to win the set. Shane Hauschild scored on a deep middle kill, the Lancers hit their next attack out of bounds and Christian Widmer served an ace for the winning point.
A block by Jake Castanha followed by a dig and kill by Johnson gave the Royals a 19-16 lead in the second set. Cole Wenal and Rockwell combined on a stuff block for a 21-17 advantage and Hauschild had two kills down the stretch and combo block with Wenal to end the set.
Castanha provided the big spark in the third set, recording back-to-back blocks for a 4-1 lead.
“For a guy who just became a starter, he’s a big contributor for us,” Kuntz said of Castanha. “That smile was as big as Dallas on those two blocks. That will light up a room.”
The Royals continued to dig Saint Francis attacks and force hitting errors, while Johnson, Hauschild, Wenal and Rockwell buried balls.
Santa Barbara was putting balls away without much trouble in its win over Royal.
The Dons gave La Costa Canyon a battle in the first match, but serving errors and some missed scoring opportunities cost them in the end.
Dos Pueblos coach Ehren Hug tinkered with his line up against Mountain View.
“It was great to change it up and try something new, but our serving was not great this morning,” Hug said. “Mountain View was in system very often and they are a tight team with good attackers, and we just couldn’t turn the corner.”
Hug said Eli Wopat played a strong match with 8 kills on 13 attempts and only two errors, and tough blocking.
“His block is becoming scary and he plays with a ton of energy. It really is something to see,” said Hug.
Against Santa Ynez, Kurtis Randmaa had 7 kills on 9 attempts to pace the DP attack. Eli Schulman and Jack Skjervem each added five kills and Elliot Brainerd had four.
Hug praised the passing and back-row defense of Matt Sessler and the serve receiving of Jeffrey Araki.
