San Marcos fought off an inspired Oxnard team to remain tied for first place in the Channel League boys volleyball race. The scores were 25-16, 25-19, 25-15.
The Royals improved to 9-1 in league — tied with Santa Barbara — and are 22-3 overall.
San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz complimented the play of the Yellowjacket.
“Hats off to Pat Casey and his team tonight. They played with passion and heart and competed the entire match, celebrating their successes and showing a tremendous amount of class in a hard fought match” said Kuntz. “We did not bring our ‘A’ game into the gym tonight and we lacked a lot of enthusiasm. My hopes are that we can get back to practice tomorrow and enjoy the game (as a team) that we all love. This is the point in the season when we need to get better and stay hungry.”
The Royals host Buena on Thursday night before playing in the Karch Kiraly Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Friday and Saturday.
Laguna Blanca 3, Foothill Tech 0
The Owls won their sixth straight Tri-Valley League match, sweeping Foothill Tech, 25-9, 27-25, 25-14, on Tuesday at Merovick Gym.
Thomas Couvillion led the Laguna Blanca attack with 13 kills to go with four aces and seven digs. Tyson Deveze had eight kills, four digs and two aces, and Drew Levinson added five kills and served three aces.
“We opened up the night with a very clean set, hitting .500% and limiting our errors,” said assistant coach Kat Niksto. “The second set was a little more up and down, but a good serving run by Thomas helped us close out the game in the end. In the third set, we saw some strong play from Carson Bohnet and Baylor Wilson to help finish off the match.”
The Owls (6-0, 15-3 overall) and Dragons play again on Wednesday in Ventura.
Dos Pueblos 3, Rio Mesa 0
Middles Mathew Wilcox and Nick Schultz-Clifford were the work horses for the Chargers in a 25-20, 25-10, 25-10 sweep at Rio Mesa in a Channel League match on Tuesday.
Wilcox was the kill leader with nine, had two blocks, three aces and a dig. Schultz had seven kills and three blocks.
“The two middles were up in the air constantly closing blocks and ripping attacks,” said DP coach Ehren Hug. “Hats of to them tonight, they worked their tails off.”
On the outside, Micah Goss had seven kills. Grant Hughes dished out 27 assists.
Dos Pueblos improved to 9-3 in league and 18-7 overall.
The Chargers are home Thursday against Pacifica.
Santa Barbara 3, Buena 0
Chase Holdren and Drake Young ran a 6-2 offense for the Dons in a 25-17, 25-15, 25-8 sweep of Buena in a Channel League match.
Austin Jaimes was a force for Santa Barbara with 14 kills, Jackson Dejong had eight kills and Parker Hann added six.
The Dons (7-1 in league) play Ventura on Thursday night at 5:15 p.m. for the varsity match.
On Friday, they host the eight-team Karch Kiraly Tournament of Champions. The Dons open against Burbank-Burroughs at 1:30 p.m. Jesuit and Hart face off in the other 1:30 match. At 12 p.m., San Marcos plays Quartz Hill, and top-seed Newport Harbor takes on West Ranch.