Hours before Saturday’s Central Coast Section Open Division final, the St. Francis High boys volleyball team shrank significantly when its two 6-foot-8 middle hitters were ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19.
Other players rose to the challenge, however, making sure their squad didn’t come up short against Mountain View.
Outside hitters Jack Ebertin and Jerry Feng tallied 21 kills each to lead the top-seeded Lancers to a 19-25, 25-15, 27-25, 25-22 win over the No. 2 Spartans.
“It’s pretty high up there,” coach Jonah Carson said when asked where this win ranks among the many others he’s had at St. Francis, including in the CCS Division I final last year and in 2016. “Knowing that you’re missing two of your key players and to still come together and play like that – through that kind of adversity – it’s pretty special.”
The loss of Pepperdine University-bound senior Ethan Watson and stellar sophomore Matthew Li – who Carson said both tested positive Saturday morning – may have factored into the Lancers’ slow start, but they found their footing in the second set.
Mountain View (31-2 overall) scored the first three points, only to see host St. Francis (35-2) respond with a few runs of its own. Two kills from Ebertin and one from Feng sparked the Lancers’ initial rally, leading to a 7-6 advantage. After Patrick Kane responded with a kill for the Spartans – one of his team-best 17 – St. Francis reeled off eight straight points.
The teams traded points until it was 17-10, when the Lancers scored five in a row – two on blocks by Ebertin and Rafa Davis – to pull away. Mountain View got as close as 23-15 before Feng scored on a dink and Peyton Sias served an ace to win the set.
“They made an adjustment in the second set,” Spartans coach Katie Johnson said of the Lancers. “They lined up one of their outsides (Ebertin) a little bit differently – they run a lot of their offense through him – and it kind of just gave them a momentum shift, which worked out in their favor. They were able to maintain that momentum shift throughout the rest of the match, which was kind of a bummer.”
Carson praised his players for adapting so quickly to the shift in strategy.
“I think part of what this team has been able to do really, really well is respond to tactical changes like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to block or defend a little different,’” he said. “Just being able to make tactical adjustments and having pretty levelheadedness at big moments was key.”
St. Francis scored the first point of the third set on an Ebertin kill but wouldn’t lead again until back-to-back aces by Feng made it 24-23. After Mountain View tied it on a kill by Logan Muir, the Lancers reclaimed the lead when Kane’s spike attempt sailed long. The Spartans answered again, this time on a kill from Kyle Deng, but they made two mistakes (service error and illegal contact) that resulted in St. Francis taking the set and a 2-1 lead in the match.
While Mountain View managed to withstand five service errors in the first set, such miscues proved costly as the match wore on. The Spartans totaled 15 service errors; the Lancers had eight.
“It’s been an ongoing challenge for us all season,” Johnson said. “It’s something we’ve been working on at every practice since the beginning of the season. We’ve made progress, but not as much as I would have liked.”
The Lancers jumped to a 9-5 lead in the fourth set, thanks largely to four kills from Ebertin and a pair from Feng. When the Spartans cut it to 11-9, Ebertin made consecutive kills, sending the second shot to the back row.
Back-to-back kills from Kane and a block from Troy Kelsch got Mountain View as close as 14-13, prompting Carson to call a timeout. After the teams traded points, the Lancers scored four straight, the first two on kills from Feng.
St. Francis maintained at least a three-point edge the rest of the way. Ebertin’s kill made it 24-20, and Feng countered two straight points from Kane (kill and block) with a deep kill to clinch the set and match.
While Ebertin and Feng were the only Lancers to reach double-digit kills, Mountain View had four players get there. Along with Kane’s 17, Muir had 12; Deng and Adrian Heath notched 10 each.
Kane’s fierce cross-court kill in the first set, which extended his team’s lead to 20-13, drew oohs and aahs from the large crowd.
Both teams qualified for this week’s Northern California Division I playoffs. St. Francis is the No. 1 seed and Mountain View is No. 2, setting up a potential rematch back at St. Francis in Saturday night’s final.
“We would love to see them again,” Johnson said.
Eagles ousted in DI quarters
Los Altos, the 10th seed in CCS Division I, made it as far as the quarterfinals.
No. 2 Serra swept the visiting Eagles 25-18, 25-22, 25-13 May 10.
Los Altos, which a day earlier defeated No. 7 in four sets on the road, finished 17-12 overall.
