Boys Volleyball: No. 9 El Camino Real Reaches Championship Game
With Sylmar leading No. 9 El Camino Real of Woodland Hills 18-12 in the first game of a City Section boys volleyball semifinal match Tuesday night, Sylmar assistant principal Casey Browne was overheard in the lobby saying, "These guys aren't better than Venice, we could be out of here in three games."
Browne was correct.
Except the No. 9 Conquistadores (12-5) came back to win game one and went on to a surprising 26-24, 25-23, 25-21 sweep of the Spartans that earned itself a berth in Saturdays championship match against Palisades of Pacific Palisades at Cal St. Northridge.
David Reynaga had 41 assists to lead El Camino Real and said, "This is unbelieveable. First time ever for us. We honestly did not expect this."
Sophomore Mikel Du Boise had 14 kills and Scott Wolfson added 10 kills for the Conquistadores, who had all the momentum on its side after narrowly winning the first two games.
Sylmar was definitely down on its luck losing the first two games and falling behind 13-8 in game three. The Spartans (21-6) trailed 24-17 before scoring four straight points but 6'10 Tyler Honeycutt's kill attempt was blocked and fell on Sylmar's side to end the match.
Honeycutt, who has blossomed this spring as a national prospect in basketball had 18 kills, 16 digs and five blocks.
"I didn't think I would dig Honeycutt as much as I did," Reynaga said. "He is a great player and hits so many balls over our blocks. Our underclassmen really stepped up tonight."
"Our coach kept telling us that the we are the underdog and the New York Giants won the Super Bowl, so you never know what can happen."
Gisear Alcantara had 29 digs for El Camino Real and Felipe Garcia had 27 assists for Sylmar.