Three days after winning its first Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions, the San Marcos boys volleyball team was brought down to earth by Dos Pueblos in the first set of their Channel League match on Tuesday night.
The visiting Chargers were digging balls like crazy and converting them into points as they built a 21-14 lead against the Channel League leaders.
Then things started to click for the Royals at that point. Owen Willer and Matteo Burdick put balls away during a Tyler Walker serving run to spark a huge comeback. They won the opening set 29-27 and took the next two, 25-13, 26-24, to complete a sweep at the Thunderhut and remain alone in first place.
San Marcos is 8-0 in league and now 23-2 overall while Dos Pueblos falls to 4-4 and 13-12.
“I knew there would be a high possibility of lethargy the Tuesday after the tournament, and we saw that,” said San Marcos coach Dave Goss. “But a win is a win and we celebrate that with great rapport.”
Willer, who’s attacking the ball with confidence, was a force in the match, leading the Royals with 15 kills on a .440 hitting percentage and serving four aces. He took over the second set with an eight-point service run that included back-to-back aces. The run was ignited by a straight-down kill from middle Jamie Hetrick.
“We didn’t run a lot of left side attacks but we did a lot on the right side and the middle,” said Goss. “Koji Hefner and Owen Willer were terrific in those spots tonight. That made all the difference. Serving and passing were huge.”
Hefner was third on the team with eight kills and hit .375. Matteo Burdick had 10 kills on a .307 average. Owen Heath led the Royals with four blocks and libero Keanu Nguyen paced with defense with 23 digs.
As their ball control improved, the Royals were able to diversify their attack. Walker combined with middles Hefner and Owen Heath and executed back-set slides that were slammed with little or no resistance at the net.
“We have three basketball players who are our middle blockers —Jamie Hedrick, Owen Heath and Koji Hefner — and doing a one-footed jump (takeoff) is second nature for them because of their background in basketball,” explained Goss. “So, running that play is designed for basketball players; it’s like they’re going up for a layup or a dunk. We just throw it up and let them go get it.”
Dos Pueblos rebounded in the third set and led 19-13 before San Marcos stepped up. They Royals tied the scored at 21 and took a 23-21 lead before the Chargers responded with back-to-back kills from Cyrus Jay and Ben Wojogbe to knot the score at 23.
Evan Daugherty and Wojogbe were the kill leaders for DP with six and five kills, respectively. Daugherty also had 10 digs.
The teams traded points before Willer ended the match for the Royals with consecutive kills, the winning blast coming off a Walker back set.
“Tyler is getting better and better, I really believe he’s going to be an All-CIF setter,” said Goss. “His accuracy and location on his sets is better and better.”
San Marcos is home again on Thursday against Ventura while DP plays host to Santa Barbara High.
