“Mooove!”
Bishop Diego boys volleyball Dillan Bennett was exhorting his players almost every time visiting Fresno-Edison served, tipped or hit a ball off the block early in Tuesday’s CIF State Tournament SoCal Regional opener at the Brick House.
The fourth-seeded Cardinals (29-9), who celebrated their first CIF-Southern Section title last Friday and enjoyed their prom on Sunday, seemed a little sluggish in their state tournament debut, but their size advantage, attacking firepower, strong block and tough serving carried them to a 25-21, 25-23, 25-18 sweep over the fifth seed in a Division 3 match.
Bishop moves on to the SoCal semifinals on Thursday at another Fresno school, Central East, the CIF-Central Section Division 2 champions and the division’s No. 1 seed. They outlasted Ventura-Foothill Tech in five sets on Tuesday.
The dynamic duo of Damien Krautmann and John Michael Flint carried the offensive load on Tuesday, putting down 16 and 15 kills, respectively. Flint also produced three blocks and two service aces, while Krautmann had two blocks and an ace to end the match — the third straight postseason match he’s aced the final point.
While they won in a sweep, the Cardinals had to work extra hard to overcome a little lethargy and a scrappy opponent.
Bennett said his team’s sluggishness was expected after an exciting weekend for his student athletes.
“It’s always hard coming off winning a CIF-Southern Section championship and having to recharge for the state playoffs,” he said. “We had such a high on Friday (beating St. Anthony for the school’s first CIF-SS boys volleyball title); these guys had prom on Sunday; we really didn’t have school on Monday, so practice wasn’t that great, and then you have to come out and play a CIF State game.”
On his screaming from the sideline, he cracked: “I knew the Red Bull was going to have to kick in and I was going to lead them vocally tonight. My voice is almost gone.”
Edison hung tough in the first two sets. The Tigers (28-12) rallied from a 16-12 deficit in the first set and pulled to 18-17 behind the hitting of Anthony Gossett.
“They did a really nice job of soft blocking a lot of balls and playing good defense,” said Bennett.
Bishop’s passing and blocking picked up to extend the lead. Tyler Roberts and Kingston Bustos combined on a block for a 21-18 advantage, Roberts then gave setter Luke Walters a nice pass and he fed Krautmann for a kill, and Krautmann followed with a block for a 23-19 advantage.
Krautmann hammered a backset from Walters for the 24th point and Flint put an exclamation point on the first set with a bomb to the floor.
Walter, who dished out 36 assists, became a force at the net with his blocking in the second set. He recorded back-to-back solos during a 5-0 run that rallied the Cardinals from 7-4 deficit. He had four blocks in the match.
The score stayed close throughout. Flint broke a 19-19 tie with float-serve ace that dropped untouched inside the back line and followed with another ace floater. Krautmann crushed a ball for a 24-21 lead but Edison got two back on a Gossett kill and a Bishop hitting error.
Krautmann finished the set with a kill off the block.
The heavy-hitting attacks of Flint and Krautmann wore down Edison in the third set. And Krautmann capped Bishop’s first-ever state tournament victory with an ace.
The Cardinals’ history-making journey hits the road for only the second time in the postseason on Thursday. Their last road game was a reverse sweep at Brea Olinda in the CIF-SS Division 5 quarterfinals.
