If the first Channel League crosstown boys volleyball match is any indication of how the others will go this season, fans should make early dinner plans on those nights.
San Marcos and Dos Pueblos battled in a marathon match on Tuesday night, with the host Royals holding off their rivals in five sets, 25-18, 25-19, 18-25, 23-25, 16-14, at the Thunderhut.
It was the first loss of the season for DP, which started the season with six wins; the Chargers are 6-1 and 1-1 in Channel League. San Marcos evened its overall record to 6-6 and is 2-0 in league.
Sophomore Matteo Burdick led the way for the young Royals, pounding 21 kills on a .275 hitting percentage.
Burdick blasted three kills early in the fifth set to help San Marcos take a 7-4 advantage. He also was part of a wild play for an eighth point. On the play, libero Keanu Nguyen dove inside in the 10-foot line and made a pancake dig on a DP tip. The ball sprayed to the left toward the bleachers and Burdick chased the errant ball and bumped it high across the court to the right side. Attacker Ayden Welch won a joust with DP's Kawin Ramko on the 50-50 ball to make it 8-4.
"Toward the end of that fifth (set), it's just pure adrenaline running through you," said Welch. "I just saw the ball up; I know Kawin, he's a great player, I played with him in club since like seventh grade, but I just go up and throw (the ball) as hard as I can into him, because I know I'm stronger and I have confidence on every single play I'm out there."
DP bounced right back and sided out on a kill from outside hitter Nathan Vincent and scored another point on a solo block by setter Wyatt Silver to make it 8-6.
Welch extended the San Marcos lead to four (11-7) with a kill off a Nguyen dig followed by a service ace. The Royals got to match point (14-11) when DP was whistled for a mishandled set.
The Chargers quickly regrouped behind middles Noah Grant and Ben Wojogbe. They delivered on back-to-back plays before San Marcos committed a hitting error to even the score at 14.
DP put itself in position to take the lead after libero Enzo DeMatteo made a one-armed dig on a deep ball. But the Chargers were unable to convert. A mis-timed attack in the middle led to the match-winning point for San Marcos.
"The boys showed a lot of mettle in sticking with it when (the match) was getting tight," said San Marcos' Dave Goss, who was participating in his first Channel League crosstown match as the head coach. "This is a very young team and they showed resilience and character for freshmen and sophomores out there. I was really proud of them.
"We had a lot of leadership from Ayden Welch, our senior captain, who in the third game dug in tight, made some clutch digs for us, which we weren't getting. We weren't stopping their middles tonight; their middles were really tough, particularly Noah Grant. He was almost unstoppable. But we finally were able to get some hands on some balls and make some digs, and Ayden Welch was the one you led that."
Welch, Calvin Frisell and Tyler Walker combined for 19 kills. Frisell had eight, Welch six and Walker five.
Grant used his quick-arm and hops to blast 16 kills to lead DP. Wojogbe added 10 kills from the middle, while Ramko supplied 14 kills and Vincent and Evan Daugherty added eight and seven, respectively, on the outside.
After dropping the first two sets, DP stepped up late in the third. A Ramko kill kicked off a 7-0 run to break a 16-16 tie. Grant blasted a pair of kills and Silver stunned the Royals with a kill on a two-ball. Grant finished the set with a kill.
San Marcos took the momentum back at the start of the fourth set, rolling to a 7-1 lead. But DP worked its way back behind the hitting of Ramko and a huge solo block by Vincent. The block tied the score at 13.
Vincent delivered a couple of key kills late in the set to keep the Chargers in the lead. The second one put them at 24-22. San Marcos sided out on the next play before Wojogbe evened the match at 2-2 on an attack from the middle.