El Segundo won the CIF Southern Division boys volleyball title last year. San Marcos has lost in the semifinals the past two seasons.
The two schools met in the Division 2 opener at Thunder Hut on Thursday, with the host Royals overcoming the odds and taking the first step towards a finals spot with a convincing victory over the defending Division 3 champions.
Behind senior Jack Wilson's 17 kills and tough serving, San Marcos defeated El Segundo 25-17, 25-14, 25-8 to advance to next week's quarterfinals. They are scheduled to travel to Anaheim to face Servite on Wednesday. It will be a rematch of last year's quarterfinals, which the Royals won at home in four sets.
After a slow start, San Marcos (33-3) picked up steam and took over against a young El Segundo team (9-13). Wilson had three kills and a six-point run in the first set, overcoming a 10-6 deficit. The outside senior scored two more points with a kill and block, and senior setter Cameron Earls followed with back-to-back ace serves for a 16-12 lead.
The Royals continued to force the Eagles out of their system with tough serves. Wilson, Rice and freshman Mateo Burdick did more damage with their hitting and blocking.
At 11-10 in the second set, Wilson hit a ball over the block and Rice got a kill from the back row to ignite a 5-0 run. Burdick scored the final two points of the run with a solo block and a back-set kill from Earls. To end the set, the Royals scored four straight points on a chip by Wilson, a block and kill by Rice, and a solo block by Earls.
Rice hit .471 with 11 kills. Burdick was three blocks off the bench.
San Marcos coach Roger Kuntz felt it was important for his team to get off to a good start in the small playoff spot.
“There are only 16 teams in Division Two, so this is like the second round. So the reason we kept the foot pedal down is because we want to get to the quarter-finals. That's what's important,” he said. said.
The Royals had a good night blocking the ball and Kuntz was happy to see that.
“I thought our blocking was pretty efficient tonight. We've been a very poor blocking team for a long time, but I thought we were even better tonight,” he said.