Bishop Diego eliminates South Pasadena in five games.
By Scott Galetti, Staff Writer
SANTA BARBARA – A drive to the beach seems like a good idea, especially with the weather heating up.
But South Pasadena’s trip up the coast to Santa Barbara serve as the beginning of summer vacation as the Tigers fell to the Cardinals in four games, 25-16, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20 in a CIF-Southern Section Division IV second-round contest Tuesday night at Santa Barbara City College’s Sports Pavilion.
“You get down 0-2 in CIF on the road, you’re in pretty deep trouble, and there’s not too many times that you’re going to come back,” South Pasadena coach Todd Terzian said.
The Tigers (17-7) didn’t have a remedy for the hard-hitting and jump-serve of Mark Hebda.
Hebda collected 18 kills and two aces and kept South Pasadena off-balance with his lightning-quick serve to lead Bishop Diego (16-5), the third-place team from the loaded Tri-Valley League.
“Being that we were playing in a gym that’s not our home gym, we definitely showed up to play tonight,” Bishop Diego coach Joe Reiken said. “We had played them before earlier in the season in a tournament and defeated them and I’m hoping that this gives us momentum heading into the quarterfinals on Friday.”
Bishop Diego took early control of the match after racing out to a 7-1 lead in the first game.
South Pasadena, the Rio Hondo League champion and No. 6 seed, scored four consecutive points, capped by an ace by David Allen, to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 14-11.
Bishop Diego outscored the Tigers 11-5 to close out the game.
South Pasadena led by as many as three points in Game 2, but the Cardinals eventually snapped a 20-20 deadlock to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
“We did not come in with our ‘A’ Game tonight and we were just a little off in a bunch of areas where we normally excel,” Terzian said. “Bishop Diego did a good job of putting pressure on some of the things that we like to do and they seemed to be a little smoother and more comfortable in what they were running.”
The Tigers enjoyed an 18-11 lead in the third game before holding off the Cardinals to extend the match.
“I thought we gave it a run to get it to five, and we were close,” Terzian said.
But Bishop Diego put aside any hopes of a South Pasadena comeback by taking an early 12-5 lead in Game 4.
Christian Winnewisser’s ace ended the match, and the Tigers’ season.
Senior opposite Tim Tong led South Pasadena with 16 kills. Johnny Sprague posted six kills and four blocks. Allen collected 10 digs, while junior setter Chris Reid had six blocks and 27 assists.
Sean McIver had eight kills for Bishop Diego and Garrick Vanderfin added seven kills and eight blocks.
“We missed a lot of serves and just gave away a few too many easy points,” Terzian said.
