San Marcos boys volleyball coach Dave Goss made it clear after a five-set, season-opening win over Valencia that the Royals will not be the “Matteo Burdick Show.”
Burdick, a powerful junior outside hitter, was the co-Channel League player of the year last season. He didn’t disappoint in Thursday’s opener, blasting a match-high 24 kills on a .440 hitting percentage in a 25-20, 25-18, 23-25, 20-25, 15-10 victory over a quality opponent at the Thunderhut.
Goss wants to see is all of his attackers finish plays.
“One of the things we realize is that we cannot be the Matteo Burdick Show. We have got to diversify our offense, and when we do spread the ball, we are a much more effective team,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence in our other pin hitters. I have a ton of confidence in our middle hitters, Jaime Hetrick and Owen Heath, to start the year. They’re playing well.”
Setter Tyler Walker fed Hetrick for 10 kills and Heath put away four in his varsity debut against a senior-heavy Valencia squad.
San Marcos pulled away from the Vikings in the first set as Burdick blasted a set at an extreme angle to tie the score at 18 and followed with two crushing serves for aces. On the next play, he dug a big hit and Walker followed with a scoop of a dunk before new varsity outside hitter Thatcher Fallon finished the rally by smartly tipping the ball to the open back court for a 21-18 lead.
The Royals capitalized on a pair of Valencia errors to finish out the set.
In the second set, the Royals erased a 9-7 deficit with a 5-0 run and put the set away with another run of points that was started by a Kalae Anderson dig that was converted into a Burdick kill. Hetrick ripped an ace, Walker blocked an overpass and Heath had a kill in the late run that gave them a 23-16 lead.
San Marcos, however, couldn’t pull off the sweep. Valencia senior outside hitter Dylan Murphy (17 kills) sparked a late surge and the Vikings got a pair of service aces from Henn Cavanaugh Bourdas and setter Reece Casey to stay alive in the match.
The Vikings broke a 15-15 tie in the fourth set as Casey scored on a dump and Murphy delivered a kill after teammate Skye Bantegui took a big hit off his chest. They stretched their lead to 20-16 before San Marcos made a run and tied the score at 23 on a stuff block by Burdick. The comeback, however, was foiled by back-to-back hitting errors, sending the match to a fifth set.
“You have to hand it to Valencia. They came back in games three and four and played much better,” said Goss. “They gave us a lot of points in the first two games.”
San Marcos regained its groove in the fifth set and never trailed. A kill by Heath, an ace from Burdick and a block by Owen Willer got the Royals off to a 4-1 start. They took advantage of three service errors and four hitting miscues by Valencia to go up 12-7 and finished off the match with an ace by Walker and kills from Fallon and Heath.
“I was happy in game five that we came out right from the first point and we were playing well,” said Goss. “So, it was a good win for us.”
He praised the players who were making their varsity debuts.
“We had some guys playing their first varsity matches today, and they came in and did a very good job. Now, we just have to build on this.”
The Royals play Friday and Saturday at the Redondo Union Invitational.