A showdown of Channel League unbeatens swung towards Santa Barbara as the Dons registered a surprising sweep of rival San Marcos 28-26, 25-22, 25-23 on Tuesday night at the Thunderhut.
San Marcos was coming off a first-place finish at the Dos Pueblos invitational and defeated the Chargers in Channel League play last week, but struggled with inconsistency against Santa Barbara and the Dons took full advantage.
“I knew going in that they were playing hot, they just won the DP Invitational, they’ve had a tough schedule so we had to kind of jump on them,” said Santa Barbara High coach Chad Arneson. “It was nice to win game one, gain some momentum and we never looked back.”
The Dons received outstanding performances across the board, but the emergence of outside hitter Luke Zuffelato, fresh off of basketball stardom, was a huge lift for Santa Barbara. He finished with a team-high 12 kills.
“We have the best athlete in Santa Barbara,” said Arneson of Zuffelato. “I thought it was a great team effort.”
Set one was crucial for Santa Barbara as the two teams went back and forth into extra points. The Dons finally broke the stalemate on an ace serve by Benicio Duarte.
The Dons enjoyed a balanced attack as Duarte finished with eight kills and Hayes Costner added nine kills.
In set two, Santa Barbara jumped out to a 9-5 lead after Henry Becker and Chase Holdren combined for a block.
The Dons extended their lead to 18-11 on a kill by Duarte and captured the set when Zuffelato sent an off-speed tap over the net that fell in.
The Royals responded in the early stages of set three with a cross-court spike by Matteo Burdick that put them ahead 5-1. Burdick, the reigning Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Athlete of the Week, finished with a match-high 16 kills.
However, Santa Barbara slowly closed the deficit and tied the score at 9-9 when San Marcos hit long. The Royals unforced errors continued as they registered six serving errors in the decisive third set.
“What I noticed with the boys tonight was they had four really good plays and then three bad plays, where we gave away a lot of points,” said San Marcos coach Dave Goss. “We can’t afford to give away good points to a solid team like Santa Barbara.”
Santa Barbara clinched the third set and the match on a kill by Becker.
With the victory Santa Barbara improved to 8-2 overall and 4-0 in Channel League play. San Marcos dropped to 11-7 overall and 3-1 in Channel league play.