A scrappy Westminster-La Quinta boys volleyball team was giving host Bishop Diego fits in their second-round CIF-SS Division 5 playoff match on Friday.
The Aztecs got on a roll, scoring five unanswered points to take an 8-2 lead and then went on a four-point run, expanding their advantage to 14-7 in the second set.
That’s when Bishop Diego pulled out the slide. Luke Walters back-set the ball to a curling Damian Krautmann and he crushed it to ignite a stirring comeback. The Cardinals erupted for nine straight points— eight coming on Walters’ serve — and rallied for a 25-22 set victory. They would go on to sweep the match (25-20, 25-22, 25-18) at the Brick House Gym and advance to the quarterfinals.
Bishop Diego (26-8) will play at Brea Olinda on Wednesday. Brea upset fourth seed Norco in straight sets.
With the hitter attacking the ball off a one-foot takeoff, the slide is an ideal play for someone like Krautmann, a star on the Cardinals’ basketball team. La Quinta had no answer at the net for the play and Krautmann put dents in the floor.
“That’s one of our big plays,” said Walters. “(The opponents) don’t really expect it at first because (Krautmann’s) coming from the left side just one-leg hitting. No one really expects it but when they do, no one can stop it.”
Krautmann led the Cardinals with 21 kills and three service aces, John Michael Flint put away 11 kills, had two blocks and an ace.
Coach Dillan Bennett said having four basketball players play at the net (Krautmann, Kingston Bustos, Tua Rojas and Flint) gives him the opportunity to incorporate plays like the slide in their attack.
“One of our strengths is we can move the ball around and we have a good enough setter to make those decisions that will set up those guys to hit against a smaller block,” he said. “The slide has worked really well because men’s volleyball doesn’t see it very often, so no team practices against it. It’s been one of our strengths, and having coach Jon Roberts on the staff has helped. He’s from the ’80s, when swing hitting was a real thing; Karch Kiraly would start on the left front and go hit on the right side because everything was higher and slower. We’ve kind of adapted that to our team.”
Bennett said a feisty defensive team like La Quinta can frustrate an offense.
“We had planned for a lot of extended rallies,” he explained. ‘La Quinta does a really nice job playing defense, and while we’ve very good on offense this year, we knew it was going to be a problem with such a scrappy team. We had to make some adjustments; you could see some of our hitters were frustrated with that, but they worked through it and figured out they don’t have to hit it harder they have to hit it smarter.”
Asked about his serving run in the second set, Walters said he really didn’t do anything special.
“I tried to keep my serve in and keep the guys rallied up to come back. We did and it really put us in good position to win.”
The Cardinals’ defense also played a key part in the win.
There was a play late in the third set where Walters made a diving dig and Rojas, the middle, ended up setting the ball to Flint for the kill.
Tyler Roberts provided a spark on defense, picking up team-high 13 digs to go with a block and six kills.
“That’s probably his best match of the year,” said Bennett.
“We’re more of an offensive team but today I think we really stepped up and got a couple of balls off the ground,” said Walters.
“It’s been a focus of ours to try and be really aggressive on defense, because we have a lot of really good athletes that aren’t specific to volleyball and hitting the floor is not something they are used to doing,” said Bennett. “It has taken a lot of practice; fortunately in the postseason it’s starting to show its potential.”
