The idea of winning the Channel League boys volleyball title seemed like a long shot for Dave Goss, who carried a roster of primarily underclassmen in his first year as head coach at San Marcos.
But Ayden Welch, one of two seniors on the squad, let Goss know that this group had the right stuff to be champions.
Welch and his Royals teammates finished what they set out to do on Tuesday night. They beat crosstown rival Santa Barbara High in four sets at J.R. Richards Gym to claim the outright league championship. The 15-25, 25-19, 25-23, 26-24 victory gave them a 9-1 record, finishing ahead of Dos Pueblos (8-2) and Santa Barbara (7-3).
The Dos Pueblos team was in attendance, pulling for a Santa Barbara win to create a three-way tie for the title.
“It is beyond my imagination,” said a joyous Goss of winning the title outright. “I want to give all the credit to Ayden Welch, our senior captain, who foresaw this. He anticipated this. His expectation was that we would be league champs, and we’re going to go on and do even more in CIF. We’re going to continue to play hard in the postseason.”
San Marcos (22-9 overall) worked its tails off to overcome a first set blowout and battle back from late deficits in sets three and four.
“They obliterated us in set one but we rebounded,” said Goss. “You got to give big credit to (middle attacker) Koji Hefner, who does so much for us. He really brings a physical element to our team in the middle with some big hits, and his presence out there gives a level of confidence to our guys.”
Hefner provided a spark down the stretch in set two, scoring three straight points on two kills and a block to give San Marcos a 23-17 advantage. He finished the match with nine kills and had a hitting percentage of .412.
Sophomore outside hitter Matteo Burdick led the Royals with 19 kills. He delivered some big hits in the third set to help rally the team from a 19-14 deficit. He tied the score at 23-23 and followed with a short serve that led to a bad pass and a Santa Barbara hitting error for a 24-23 lead.
Senior Calvin Frisell finished the comeback with one of his six kills on the night.
“It’s so fun,” said Burdick of winning the title in his sophomore year. “I’m so grateful for this. I’m grateful for my coach and the rest of my team. It’s been such a fun season. I can’t wait for CIF.”
The fourth set was wild as the teams traded scoring runs.
Santa Barbara (12-10) rallied from a 14-12 deficit and took a 19-15 advantage behind the hitting of Hayes Costner and Luke Zuffelato and the serving of Jamison Savellano.
Costner led all hitters with 20 kills on a .474 hitting average, while Zuffelato had a double-double of 15 kills and 10 digs.
The Dons went up 23-20 before San Marcos made its move and tied the score. Burdick pounded a sharp-angled kill, Welch followed with a solo block and Santa Barbara committed a hitting error on a back-row attack to make it 23-all.
San Marcos took a 24-23 lead after another hitting error. On the next play, Royals’ libero Keanu Nguyen dug a pair of attacks, but the Dons kept battling and equalized on kill by Benicio Duarte.
Burdick answered to put the Royals at match point again. He then ended the match from the service line, hitting an off-speed jump serve for an ace.
“We just can’t finish for some reason,” said Santa Barbara coach Chad Arneson. “Maybe I gotta look at myself in the mirror as a coach and try and figure out what’s the best situation for us to learn how to put teams away when we’re supposed to.”
“This is a tough loss for sure, but you know, the season’s not over. I got to give San Marcos a lot of credit. David Goss, congrats to him on his first Channel League (title) — what do you know, in his first year. I know a lot of those guys over there love volleyball. They live and die volleyball. Some of those young bucks, they’ve been playing since they were 14, and you could see the hunger in their eyes. And our guys are learning that, and hopefully we can bounce back and keep our heads up.”
Goss expressed his excitement at how his group of players came together and achieved a goal.
“I could not be more excited right now for these guys,” he said. “We don’t have any returning starters on this team —no one is a returning starter. These guys are all brand new to varsity, and they just played. They were calm, they were steady throughout the game. Even when we were down twice in games three and four, they came back. They didn’t lose their cool. They stabilized their passing, their serving got better in games two, three and four.
“That’s what is so impressive to me about this group and their mentality. They really do play like veterans and that’s something I was not expecting from them, but they really are, and I’m just so proud of them.”
San Marcos, Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos will learn their CIF-SS playoff divisions and draws on Saturday.