The third time wasn’t the charm for the San Marcos boys volleyball team at Tesoro on Saturday.
Meeting in the CIF-SS playoffs for the third straight year in South Orange County and the second year in a row in the Division 2 semifinals, the Royals fell to the Titans in an intense five-set match, 25-18, 11-25, 20-25, 30-28, 15-13.
San Marcos ends the season with a 30-8 record, while Tesoro (21-5) plays for a repeat championship against either Redondo Union or Upland.
San Marcos overcame a slow start, found its mojo and dominated Tesoro in the second set. Luke Walker went on a four-point serving run, aided by stuff blocks from Mason Rice on the outside and Kyle Foley in the middle, to build a 14-9 lead.
Rice and Foley continued to do damage and libero Cliff Ficker was a vacuum in the back row as San Marcos outscored Tesoro 11-2 for the remainder of the set.
“We started to play big volleyball and had an answer for every Titan hitter in set 2. Our blocking came alive and we got better on defense” said coach Roger Kuntz
The Royals carried the momentum into the third set and opened up a 15-10 lead after a kill by Rice. Jack Wilson got hot, scoring three points during a 5-2 run for a 22-16 advantage.
Tesoro made a run behind the hitting out 6-foot-7 junior outside hitter Kaumana Carreira before Rice finished the set with a kill to put the Royals ahead 2-1.
In the critical fourth set, Tesoro rallied from 17-14 deficit and tied the score at 22 on a Carreira kill. The teams traded points and fought off set-point situations.
A service ace by Charlie Magid put San Marcos at match point, 26-25. But Tesoro stayed alive on a big kill from Carreira.
Opposite Nathan Draper put the Titans at set point, 27-26, but San Marcos sided out to knot the score again. Carreira and Rice traded kills to make it 28-28 before Tesoro prevailed on back-to-back kills from Draper.
Draper led Tesoro with 16 kills.
The deciding fifth set was tight all the way. A blown opportunity on an overpass that tipped off the net at 10-10 gave Tesoro the lead. But Wilson came right back for the Royals to tie the score at 11.
After San Marcos was called for a net violation, Tesoro libero Keegan Cook followed with the turning-point play of the match for his team. He made a diving save on a San Marcos tip to the middle of the court that was converted into a point on a roll shot by Carreira. That gave the Titans a 13-11 lead.
San Marcos sided out on a Tesoro hitting error, but the Titans won the serve right back on a kill from Draper.
Wilson sided out again for the Royals, which ended up being the final point of their magical playoff run and season. Tesoro setter Jase Fukushima went to Dylan Patton in the middle for the match-winning putaway.
“Losing the fourth set 28-30 was huge,” said Kuntz. “The fifth set was tied over and over again but at 11-11, we made another mistake and they squeezed out the win.”
Wilson led the Royals with 15 kills and Rice had 10.
“I thought this was our day, I thought we had the opportunities but once again you have to earn everything against a team like that,” Kuntz told the Orange County Register. “I hate for this group to be done, it’s been that special of a group. To get 30 wins in a season, I’ve never done that before. (These players) have done so much for our program.”
Kuntz praised the play of three senior captains: opposite Walker, setter Hansen Streeter and Foley in the middle.
“Proudly, they can look back on their high school careers and always say that they never lost a home match and went deep into the playoffs each and every year together,” said Kuntz. “Also, the future at San Marcos looks bright as they return four junior starters and six more letter winners.”