Santa Barbara High fell to El Segundo on Saturday night 25-19, 25-18, 25-22 in a Division 2 quarterfinal CIF match.
“You have to give El Segundo a lot of credit, they played well and they were able to be consistent for the most part,” Santa Barbara coach Chad Arneson said. “Their libero played especially really well, and passing in general. Their setter did a great job distributing the ball to their middles, and it hurt us.”
The Dons were in the hunt in each set but couldn’t overcome the Eagles, the division’s No. 3 seed.
“Our passing is always key and when our sets are on it just opens up our outside hitters,” El Segundo coach Eric Chance said. “We get 1-on-1’s and just put balls away.”
El Segundo (20-3) faces Laguna Beach or Lakewood in Wednesday’s semifinals.
“We want to win CIF, said El Segundo’s Nick Rable. “We’ve been working really hard all season. We want to go all the way to the championship. We need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, putting pressure from the service line, passing and siding out.”
The Dons finish their season with a 16-10 record.
“We have overcome a lot of diversity (this season), we had injuries all over the place,” said Dons senior Quinn Denkensohn. “We didn’t have a set lineup but still pulled through. People sucked up their injuries and we did our best.”
