Boys Volleyball Playoffs Roundup: San Marcos Cruises to First Round Sweep of El Segundo

After a spectacular regular season that culminated in the program’s first outright Channel League title in a decade, the San Marcos High boys volleyball team made quick work of visiting El Segundo in the opening round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs. 

Senior Jack Wilson led the way for the Royals with 17 kills on an efficient .500 hitting percentage. Mason Rice added 17 kills and freshman Mateo Burdick chipped in three blocks.

Because there are only 16 teams in division two this is like a second round match and so the reason why we kept the foot on the pedal is that we want to be in the quarterfinals,” said San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz. “I thought we were pretty efficient with our blocking tonight. We’ve been trying to improve and I thought we got better at it tonight.”

San Marcos started slowly, falling behind 8-3 in the first set before outsourcing El Segundo 22-9 to close out the set. 

As the match went on the experience of many of San Marcos’ key players came to the forefront. The Royals have reached the semifinals in Division 2  the past two seasons.

In set two, San Marcos took an 8-7 lead on a dump by Cameron Earls and increased the lead to 14-10 when El Segundo hit wide. The Royals closed out the second set on a solo block by Burdick. 

“He’s got a big future for us,” said Kuntz of Burdick. “He’s a real fast-twitch kid.”

Set three followed a similar script as a Wilson kill gave San Marcos a 9-6 lead. The Royals advantage increased to 16-7 on an ace serve by Earls and San Marcos clinched the third set and the match when Charlie Magid cleaned up an errant El Segundo pass.

“You just let them go, we’ve all been together for a long time. We are very experienced,” Kuntz said. “If we play our best game we’re the best team in Division 2 right now,”

The Royals will travel to Servite for a quarterfinal match on Wednesday May 1. Servite defeated Los Alamitos 3-1(25-19, 25-17, 21-25, 25-12) in its first round match. The two teams met last year in the quarterfinals with San Marcos winning in four sets.

“Going down into Orange County is always a difficult task,” Kuntz said. “We’ve had a lot of success in the {thunderhut} over the last three years so on the road we’re going to have to figure out what it’s all about.”

Santa Barbara, 3; Canyon, 1

The Dons defeated Canyon 25-18, 28-26, 17-25, 28-26 in their CIF-SS Division 2 opening round match. The Dons will host Beckman of Tustin in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Dos Pueblos, 3; Upland, 0

The Chargers overcame a long road trip to sweep Upland in its first round match 25-19, 25-19, 25-23. Dos Pueblos will host top-seeded Redondo Union in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Laguna Blanca , 3; Bolsa Grande, 0

The Owls continued their dominant season with a sweep of Bolsa grande in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs 25-14, 25-13, 25-15.

Flintridge Prep, 3; Bishop Diego, 1

The Cardinals failed to advance in the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs after dropping their opening round match on the road 25-17, 25-22, 19-25, 25-19.