Santa Barbara High School boys volleyball in the CIF-SS division was unable to overcome a slow start and lost to Beckman High School in four sets. The two quarterfinal games will be played Tuesday at JR Richards Gym.
The final set scores of the match were 25-21, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21.
With this loss, the Dons' season ends with an overall record of 13 wins and 13 losses.
Meanwhile, Beckman will face the winner of the Redondo Union vs. Dos Pueblos matchup at Sovine Gym on Wednesday.
The story of the first set was that Santa Barbara High School struggled from the service line, with the Dons finishing the set with seven service errors.
A poor service line prevented Santa Barbara High School's defense and offense from finding a rhythm, and the Patriots took advantage of that early in the set to take a 14-9 lead.
The Dons pushed late thanks to a Will Herman kill and back-to-back blocks, but Beckman took the set ahead with a kill from Luke Morrison.
Santa Barbara High School coach Chad Arneson said of his struggles on the service line: “We just couldn't get into a rhythm…It was pretty bad and I didn't think our kids would be able to replicate that.”
The second set was even closer, thanks in part to Herman's strong left arm.
With the set tied at 13-13, Herman had a kill followed by back-to-back aces to give his team a three-point lead and force a timeout.
“Will didn't have his best game, but he looked great there,” Arneson said of Herman in the second set. “We're really going to lose his left arm.”
Beckman continued to fight in the set, tied at 16-16, 21-21, and 23-23.
But Herman kept the Dons from falling into a 2-0 hole with back-to-back kills to end the set, tie the match at 1-1 and send a wave of energy through the gym.
The third set started out back and forth, but Beckman started to pull away and took a 9-5 lead. However, Santa Barbara High School held on and tied the game at 13-13.
The same pattern repeated itself after that, with the Patriots increasing their lead to four points at 19-15 before the Dons continued to fight, tying the set at 21-21 on a Herman kill.
“I give the kids a lot of credit. I know it wasn't their best performance, but they fought hard and gave it their all,” Arneson said.
From there, Beckman relied on Morrison's heavy left arm. Morrison scored her team's final three points with a kill to take a 2-1 lead and win the set with a score of 25-23.
Morrison was a force on the outside for the Patriots, recording a game-high 22 kills.
The strong end to the third set continued into the fourth, with Beckman taking control of the set early with a 9-5 lead, and they never wavered, winning the set 25-21 and ending the match. We won 3-1.
“We were making too many uncharacteristic errors. It wasn't really about what line we were in, it was more about whether we could serve the ball in and get into a good rhythm,” Arneson said.
“I felt like I was right there, but I just couldn’t get over the hump.”
While Coach Morrison led all players, UCSB commit Raglan Kjaer spearheaded the Dons' attack with 20 kills in his final high school game.
Meanwhile, Herman ended the night with 15 kids, and Mikey Denver beat up 10 of his own kids.
“We're going to miss them,” Arneson said of the eight-player senior class, which includes Kier, Herman and Denver. “They mean a lot to me and to this program and have done a lot for Santa Barbara High School volleyball.”