Santa Margarita Gets Past Santa Barbara

CYPRESS — Justin DeBlasio has gone from postseason spectator to a Southern Section volleyball champion during his four years at Santa Margarita.

DeBlasio’s upward climb crested with the Eagles’ 15-7, 15-5, 15-8 victory over Santa Barbara in the Division II title match Saturday at Cypress College.

“I remember my freshman year I was going to all the matches because we were already done, so I had a lot of time on my hands after school,” DeBlasio said. “I set a goal then and said, ‘I want to be there.’ ”

It was only fitting that DeBlasio served the final point for the top-seeded Eagles, because he is the only current player who was a part of their early struggles.

Santa Margarita managed only three victories during his freshman season, then improved to 10-10 the following year, getting its first taste of the playoffs before Laguna Beach ended the Eagles’ season in the second round.

Santa Margarita continued to improve last season, finishing 18-3 and surviving the playoffs until the quarterfinals. This season, the Eagles not only took two steps further in the playoffs, but they didn’t lose a game in the process.

“This was just a great senior class with good spirit and unbelievable desire,” Santa Margarita Coach Eddie Rapp said. “These guys work their butts off. I don’t have the easiest practices, but they just hung in there.”

The Eagles were methodical in their victory over second-seeded Santa Barbara. The Dons (14-8) never scored more than two consecutive points in getting swept for the first time this season.

“We never really got a chance to get started, it was very frustrating,” Santa Barbara Coach Bob Moore said.

Santa Margarita (19-2) scored off its first serve of the match, and won eight of the first nine points. Two ball-handling errors by Santa Barbara increased the lead to 10-2 and Tim Gerlach laced a spike into the middle to make it 11-2.

The Dons narrowed the lead to 13-7, when Erik Wright spiked an overpass, but DeBlasio ended a long rally with a hard spike to give the Eagles game point. On the ensuing serve, Marcus Skacel made an outstanding one-handed dig to keep the point alive, then Nick Mauro delivered an off-speed shot to the middle to end Game 1.

Santa Margarita kept the pressure on the Dons in the second game, scoring the first three points on two kills by DeBlasio and a hitting error by Wright.

Santa Barbara stayed within four points until Gerlach served an ace to give the Eagles a 10-5 lead. Santa Margarita then scored the last five points, the final coming on Gerlach’s seventh kill of the game.

Santa Barbara took its first lead to open Game 3, and increased the advantage to 5-1 on Dimitri Nichols’ block against setter Adam Breault. However, Santa Margarita responded by scoring eight consecutive points.

For only the fifth time during the match Santa Barbara was able to put together consecutive points to make it 9-7, but the Eagles scored six of the last seven, the final coming on Skacel’s match-high 19th kill.