Santa Ynez boys volleyball kicked off its Division 3 State Championship run with a three-set sweep of El Toro on Tuesday, 25-23, 25-18, 25-17.
The No. 2-seeded Pirates will now take on Clairemont of San Diego, the No. 3 seed, on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Santa Ynez.
“I really appreciate the great crowd and atmosphere tonight,” Santa Ynez head coach Chip Fenega said. “I was so happy for the team to get this encore performance in front of their fans.
“It was an exciting match for us as we haven’t played at home during our CIF run, so I was impressed by their energy and effort, especially when the ball was out of system.”
Anders Dietenhofer led the way on Tuesday, hammering down a game-high 17 kills. Meanwhile, Nate Biron tallied 12 kills and Ben Stuerman recorded seven kills and four blocks.
Jadon Bailey also had a nice night in the middle, ending with six kills and four blocks of his own. Manny Sanchez facilitated the offense to the tune of 40 assists.
“We are fortunate to have some options on offense, and on any given nigh,t someone can take over,” Fenega said. “We were able to side out efficiently with the passing of Anders, Ben and Will Losson.”
On the defensive end, Will Losson tallied 17 digs, while Dietenhofer had 13 and Stuerman collected 11.