Before serving for the championship point and school history, Bishop Diego’s Damien Krautmann told his coach and volleyball teammates during a timeout: “I got this.”
And Krautmann made good on his word. He ripped a jump serve off the tape that St. Anthony couldn’t make a play on, and the Cardinals celebrated a four-set victory for their first CIF-SS boys volleyball title.
They won the Division 5 title match by the scores of 25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23 before a full house at the Brick House Gym.
Bishop football players and other students rushed the court after the trophy presentation and created a mosh pit with the players to celebrate their history-making accomplishment.
“It’s a special group of guys and I’m so happy for them,” said coach Dillan Bennett, who became only the second coach in the Santa Barbara area to win CIF championships in boys and girls volleyball at the same school. Jon Lee was the first at San Marcos, capturing boys titles in 1991 and 1999 and a girls title in 1999. Bennett guide the Bishop girls to a championship in 2021.
“They work so hard. And with this being not their primary sport, to come out and be really athletic and play really solid volleyball in the championship in the Brick House, they’ll never forget it. I’m so happy for them,” said Bennett of his players.
On the final point, Bennett was confident Krautmann would finish the title match at the service line. He saw him do it in the fourth set in the semifinals.
“Damien looked at me and as he was saying, ‘I got this,’ I was saying, ‘I know you got this, just like last time,” said Bennett. “He just gave me a fist bump and I knew it was going to be in his hands and it worked out for us.”
Krautmann led the Cardinals with 24 kills, four blocks and four services aces. John Michael Flint, who was a force at the net in fourth set, finished with 15 kills, one block and four aces. Tyler Roberts, who was clutch in the second set, had seven kills and two blocks and middles Tua Rojas and Kingston Bustos each had four kills.
Despite some earlier errors at the service line, Krautmann thrived in the pressure moment.
“I wasn’t serving well all game,” he said. “(St. Anthony) called time out and I looked at Bennett and said: ‘I got this,’ and he said, ‘I know you do.’ So I trusted it.”
Setter Luke Walters said when he heard how confident Krautmann sounded, he felt good. “I said, ‘Okay, you do you, and he did it.”
Serving played a huge part in the victory. The Cardinals won the first two sets largely on the strength of their serve.
“Our game plan was to serve them out of the gym,” said Walters.
“Their serving was tough,” said St. Anthony coach Jeremy Malazarte.
“It’s all about serving,” said Bennett. “At the upper echelons, everybody serves with that kind of pressure, and all year long we have not been afraid to miss because our offense was so strong and our service reception was so strong. In rally scoring, you can miss 10 serves a game and still win by two. So we’ve always tried to maintain service pressure and what we’ve seen throughout the playoffs is the teams we were playing did not see that kind of pressure all season.”
The Saints struggled with their ball control in the first two sets, often scrambling to play balls off the ceiling beams at the Brick House. Flint blasted back-to-back aces to build a 23-15 lead for the Cardinals in the first set and Nico DeRosa capped it with an ace.
In the second set, St. Anthony cleaned up its serve reception and got their 6-foot-6 hitter Griffin Bass going. The Saints took leads of 7-2 and 11-7 before Bishop turned things around.
Tyler Roberts provided the spark. He had a kill and a float service ace during a 4-0 run to tie the score at 12. Later, he scored on a kill into the deep corner and went on a five-point serving run to win the set. Bustos scored the winning point on a one-handed block in the middle.
“Pound for pound, he’s a bruiser, he’s a fighter. That’s why I love the kid,” said Bennett of Roberts. “He really has no fear out there. I love coaching him.”
Bishop (29-7) battled from behind in the third set and took its first lead at 17-16 on an ace by Luca Moreno Murphy. The teams went back and forth before St. Anthony prevailed at the end on a tip by Austin Luckey.
The fourth set was full of drama. Bishop opened up leads of 7-2, 13-8 and 18-14, but St. Anthony kept chipping away, capitalizing on Cardinal hitting errors. Three straight errors enabled the Saints to take a 20-19 lead.
Bishop called a time out and St. Anthony committed a serving error when play resumed.
“We just had to settle down,” said Bennett. “I think the moment got really big and all we needed to do was handle the first contact. Once we got into a rhythm and passed the ball, we got into our offense. Before that, we were having a really hard time with their service pressure. We called time out and the guy missed the serve. Point for me, I guess.”
St. Anthony went up 22-21 before Krautmann sided out and Flint followed with a kill to put Bishop ahead 23-22. After Saints’ setter Noah Furlow won a joust to tie the score, a hitting error gave the Cardinals match point.
That set up Krautmann for a moment he and the rest of the Cardinals will never forget.
Bishop will now wait for its CIF State Tournament draw on Sunday. The opening round is Tuesday.
