John Michael Flint racked up 26 kills and the Bishop Diego boys’ volleyball team thwarted a valiant upset bid by visiting Cate to capture a 25-23, 20-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-9 victory on Thursday night at the Brick House.
With the victory the Cardinals clinched at least a share of the Tri-Valley League title with a showdown against second place Laguna Blanca looming on Tuesday.
“At worst it is a co-league championship. We’re going to try our best to represent ourselves on senior night and play hard, but we are already league champions,” said Bishop Diego coach Dillan Bennett. “We’re focused on the playoffs so hopefully we can get some good momentum and play well in that last one here.”
After splitting the first two sets, Bishop Diego opened the third set with a 6-0 run capped off by a powerful spike from Flint that forced a Cate timeout.
Cate battled back and eventually cut its deficit to 22-18 on a kill by Mack Nieman. However, the Cardinals were able to close out the set on a cross-court spike by Flint.
In set four, Cate flipped the script and jumped out to a 14-9 lead on a kill by Henry Bouma. Another Nieman kill extended the Rams lead to 24-17, but Bishop Diego would not go down without a fight.
The Cardinals mounted a 6-0 run capped off by a combined block from Nick Malesky and Tyler Roberts that cut the Bishop Diego deficit to 24-23. However, Bouma responded with a kill to keep Cate alive and force a fifth set.
“I think that run at the end of game four with John Michael serving in game four really switched things,” Bennett said. “Anytime you are going into game five and your looking up at the scoreboard down six, seven or eight points the momentum is totally in the favor of the team that closes that one out.”
Set five was tight early, but a kill by Malesky gave Bishop Diego an 8-6 lead. Luke Waters followed with a dump that put Bishop Diego 9-6 and the Cardinals never looked back.
With the victory Bishop Diego improved to 19-11 overall and 7-0 in the Tri-Valley league. Cate drops to 5-11 overall and 2-5 in league.
“All the credit goes to Cate, they are a much improved team,” Bennett said. “I really hope that the playoff cards fall their way and they get the last spot into the postseason out of the league so they can make a playoff run as well. They put us on our hills quite a bit tonight and luckily our guys responded.”
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