Morgan Pierce of the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club 18-Blue team stuffs a ball during the Anaheim Classic.
The Santa Barbara Volleyball Club’s boys 18-Blue team climbed through the ranks to finish 17th out of 69 teams overall in the 18-Open Division of the Boys Classic in Anaheim this past weekend.
The team, ranked 25th coming in, started Day 1 with two solid wins over 46 West 18s and Nor Cal Revolution 18s in two sets, and finished the day with a tight three-set loss to Mountain View 18-Red (25-18, 25-27, 18-16). The team returned to the gym to beat Mountain View 18-Black (25-11, 25-20), Balboa Bay 18-White (25-20, 25-18) and San Gabriel 18-Elite (25-17, 25-20).
“We had a great day 2 where the whole team was playing well,” coach Matt Jones said. “We won our morning pool to take the 9th seed in the tourney and give us a shot to break into the gold bracket.
The team returned that same evening to compete in a pool for a spot in the top 12. The team unfortunately suffered two heart-breaker losses in three sets to High Line 18-Nike (21-25, 25-21, 15-11) and SCVC 18-Quicksilver (25-21, 28-30, 15-10).
“We lost both matches to very good teams but we battled and showed great character on the court,” Jones said.
Day 3, the team entered a challenge round to move into the silver or bronze brackets, and the team beat PPMS 18s (21-25, 25-18, 15-9) to move into the silver bracket playoffs, where they engaged in yet another 3-set match and were ultimately stopped by Team Rockstar 18s (23-25, 25-22, 15-12). The team earned a 17th place for the tournament.
“It was a great tournament, we really came together and peaked to finish the year successfully,” said Jones.
The team roster for the tournament consisted of Jeffrey Araki (Sr.) Shane Hauschild (Sr.), Nate Holmes (Sr.), Baker Johnson (Sr.), Blake Lockhart (So.), Morgan Pierce (So.), Niko Plesons (Sr.), Ross Warden (Sr.), Cole Wenal (Jr.), Christian Widmer (Sr.) and Coaches Matt Jones and Chad Gordon.
16 BLUE
The 16-Blue team started its tournament with a thrilling first day of wins, beating Club Wood 16s (25-23, 25-13), Biodynamax 16s (25-17, 25-12) and Adversity 16-Purple (17-25, 25-19, 15-12). On day 2, the team came out fighting again, but although the team beat Team Rockstar 16s (26-24, 25-27, 15-8), it lost two very close matches to City of Angels (21-25, 25-22, 15-10) and High Line 16-Nike (25-23, 25-23) to knock them out of the gold rounds.
Returning that evening, the team changed things around and swept Seaside South 16s in 2 sets and edged out Santa Monica 16-Silver (21-25, 30-28, 15-13). On day 3, the team lost to Main Beach 16s in another marathon match (25-17, 24-26, 15-12) before losing the first round of playoffs in the Flight 2 bracket against Pali 16-Black (25-9, 13-25, 15-7). The team finished with a 6-4 record and 33rd out of 89 teams for the tournament.
The tournament team was coached by Justin Hertlein and Mike Stewart, and consisted of Elliott Brainerd, Jack Burns, Chris Costantino, Jack Copeland, Piper Davis, Brian Eddy, Jared James, Ian McClain, Kip Lawrence, Dane Pederson, Kevin Peters, Noah Pfeiffer, Robert Stone, Heyward Todd, and Eli Wopat.
