After falling behind 14-8 in set one, the Santa Barbara High boys’ volleyball team kicked into high gear and kept its season alive with a 25-19, 25-13, 25-21 sweep of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in the CIF-SS Division 4 Quarterfinals.
The Dons survived a five-set war at Foothill in the second round and appear to be peaking at the right time.
“I was telling them after the match tonight that the Foothill match prepared us for the rest of the playoffs,” said Santa Barbara High coach Chad Arneson. “After beating the four-seed Foothill, I knew coming in that Notre Dame was going to be a good team.”
Santa Barbara closed the first set on a 17-5 run and never looked back. Set two was pure domination as the Dons finished strong with an ace serve by Chase Holdren to go ahead 24-13 and took a 2-0 set lead after a Notre Dame hitting error.
Set three was tight early as a kill by Notre Dame outside hitter Edin Kapetanovic tied the score at 5-5 with a kill. However, Santa Barbara responded with an 8-2 run capped off by Luke Zuffelato spike off the Notre Dame block.
With the Dons leading 24-17, Notre Dame put together an impressive last gasp beginning with a Luca Gagilo kill that cut the Knights’ deficit to 24-18.
Kapetanovic followed with three consecutive ace serves that made the score 24-21.
Just when it seemed as though Notre Dame might be able to come all the way back behind Kapetanovic’s serving, he was called for a violation for letting the ball hit the ground for the second time during his serving run.
The miscue clinched set three and the match for Santa Barbara.
The Dons were led offensively by Benicio Duarte, who continued his recent tear with a team-high 11 kills on a .556 hitting percentage. Zuffelato added 10 kills and Kristian Dybdahl chipped in seven kills.
“I had to take a big break from volleyball a few weeks ago because my grandfather passed away in a car accident,” Duarte said. “I kind of just realized I have to fill in my spot on this team and really help us finish this out as a senior and get us a CIF Championship.”
Santa Barbara will host Santiago of Corona in the semifinals on Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m.
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