The Santa Fe Eagles Volleyball team is competing in the West Coast Challenge tournament this weekend. It started on Friday night with pool play at Valhalla High School. The first game of their pool play was against the Montgomery High School Aztecs. After two back to back blocks by Sophomore Gunnar Martin and Senior Aaron Austin and a tip by Freshman Chase Herring put the Eagles up 2-1. The Aztecs jumped up 6-3 before serving out of bounds and a SFC point brings the Eagles within 1. A service error and a bad set shifted the momentum back to the Aztecs who went on a big run and won the first set 25-13. The second set began with the Aztecs up 6-5, but what kept the Eagles in the game thus far was 3 errors by Montgomery. The Aztecs kept the pressure on and increased their lead to 13-9. A rotation error and a bad pass brought the Eagles within 2. After some back and forth points the Eagles found themselves down 19-15. A big block by Sophomore Colin Sepkovic brought the Eagles within three points before an error gave a point and the momentum back to Montgomery. The Aztecs scored 5 straight points of solid play and some SFC errors. Coach Burich said, “They had 2 big runs on us in the first set and they closed the second set out on a 12-5 run, those aren’t good runs for us.”
The second game of pool play saw the Eagles match up against the Broncos of Rancho Bernardo. The Eagles were the beneficiaries of some sloppy play by the Broncos to start the game and found themselves up 3-1. Some SFC errors along with 5 aces by Rancho Bernardo lead to the Eagles playing from behind again and ultimately falling 25-16 in the first set. The Eagles looked to improve in the second set but found themselves playing from behind from the start. SFC kept it close and rattled off three straight points to go up 7-6 before Rancho Bernardo tied it at 7. The Broncos offense took off and closed out the second set on an 18-4 run. “That’s a good, strong Rancho Bernardo team who controls the ball well and attacks fast,” said Coach Burich after the game.
The Eagles were scheduled to face the Norsemen of Valhalla in the third and final game of pool play. SFC jumped out to a 3-0 lead behind an ace from Freshman Seth Arlauskas and a block by Gunnar Martin and Chase Herring. The Eagles allowed the Norsemen to creep back into the game after an ace by Martin and the game was tied at 8. Valhalla closed out the first set on a 17-8 run to win 25-16. The second set started with the Eagles down 7-4 before Aaron Austin served 3 straight points to tie the game at 7. Valhalla kept a lead and a block by Martin and Herring brought the Eagles within two. Valhalla closed out the second set 11-6. “There are parts of each game where we play on par with our competition but our errors take us out and we need to learn to close.”
The Eagles tournament continues Saturday, April 21st at 9am at West Hills High School.