Vaqueros Advance To Second Straight State Semifinal

By Jimmy Friery

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Santa Barbara City College Men's Volleyball team advanced to the 3C2A Semifinals with a 25-20, 17-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-11 victory over San Diego Mesa on Friday night in Rob Gym.

Keegan Hubbard—the reigning State Player of the Week—had a career-high nine blocks (two solos) in the comeback win. The leadership of Mykolas Petritias and libero Luke Steinert was crucial, as was their performance (15 kills and 10 digs, respectively).

Beating Moorpark in this round last year, it is the second consecutive time that Santa Barbara has reached the State Semifinals.

"This is a really special group," head coach Bridget Kulesh said. "At the end of the day, everybody really wants to win and this is an incredibly competitive program. They put Santa Barbara on the map again."

The Vaqueros swept Mesa in the previous meeting this season on Feb. 13. In this match, they cruised to a 25-20 victory in the first set, picking up where they had left off.

But it did not end up being that easy. Mesa completely flipped the momentum, easily winning both the second and third sets 25-17 and 25-19. Suddenly, the Vaqueros were one set away from their season ending prematurely.

"[Mesa] started playing a lot more freely," Kulesh said of the middle sets. "They served way more aggressively. They played with no fear and I think that shocked us a little bit."

But the Vaqueros' next-point mentality kept the match alive. They took control of the fourth set with another 25-20 win.

The ensuing fifth set was a wild ride. The Vaqueros jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Mesa countered with seven in a row; thus, somehow, it was 7-5 Mesa. However, Santa Barbara then went on 7-2 run from there, taking a 12-9 lead. They would hold off any signs of another Mesa run, taking the set 15-11.

"Everybody has a very different perspective on how to handle the stress of moments like that," Kulesh said. "I think by the fifth set we figured out how to communicate with each other—'this is how I need to talk to my setters' and 'this is how we need to change our serve receive.' This was a true example of everybody leaning on one another, and I think that brought a lot of comfort across the team."

Middle blocker Nick Schultz was another standout performer, earning eight kills on an errorless 12 swings (.667). Greyson Goldberg also had eight kills on 19 swings with just one error.

Although they are the higher seed, the Vaqueros face off against Long Beach—the hosts of the State Championship—on Thursday in the second of two semifinal matches on the night. Golden West and Fullerton play at 5 p.m. before the Vaqueros and Vikings, currently scheduled for 7 p.m.