The San Marino High boys’ volleyball team took a pause from tournament play to host Arcadia in a nonleague matchup.
The host Titans, powered by junior Casey Chan, took Arcadia to the limit before the Apaches prevailed in five games, 24-26, 25-16, 22-25, 25-23, 15-13, on March 6.
“This is real volleyball,” San Marino coach Tony Chou said. “We can call out anyone. Two or three points — it could have gone either way, but it’s great. I’m glad we got to play at this level.”
Arcadia stayed unbeaten but had no answer for Chan.
“Unstoppable,” Arcadia coach Kurt Mulder said of Chan. “That is the best player on the court today. I’d like to say we did a lot of good things on our side, but we couldn’t stop one of their players and we learned a lot of valuable lessons that our blocking needs to get better, but I’m going to say ‘hats off’ to San Marino. They fought hard and that is a really good team right there.”
Chan finished with a match-high 31 kills, attacking from the outside with increasing effectiveness as the match progressed. The junior had nine kills in game three, 10 in game four and four in the truncated fifth game.
“I just had confidence in my attack,” Chan said. “After a while I realized that they didn’t want me to hit on them, so I just kept going at them.”
San Marino started the fifth game scoring the first four points by way of consecutive kills from the outside by Titan senior Ryan Wang, then a block by Luca Moggio and Jared Wang, and another kill by Ryan Wang. However later, a hit by Ryan Wang was called long, and not to have been touched by the Apache block on the way out, to get the visitors within one. Arcadia drew even at 11 with an ace.
Once again, a hit from the outside by Ryan Wang appeared to touch an Arcadia blocker’s fingertips, but was ruled not to have made contact before going long, putting the Apaches ahead for the first time in the deciding game.
“I believe both of my hits were like touches, but the refs didn’t see it,” Ryan Wang said. “We could have won, but I think we tried our best, so it was a good match.”
Chan recorded a kill from the outside on the right side to tie it at 12. Arcadia then pulled ahead with a block, only to see Chan tie the score again with a kill from the outside smashed down to the Arcadia side of the court after a running start. The Titans were called for a lift to set up match point for the Apaches, who cashed in immediately on a kill by Kyle Soriano to seal the Arcadia win.
In addition to Chan’s 31 kills, Ryan Wang added eight and Moggio five. Matt Woo had four kills, while Jared Wang and Jeffery Li had three and two kills respectively. Ryan Lee and Zach Fong had a kill apiece. Arcadia was paced by Isaiah McMahon with 12 kills.
Game one was tied nine times. Arcadia scored the first three points and held the advantage until an Apache hit long to tie the game at 16. The Titans then took their first lead of the match on a kill from the outside by Chan that rocketed off the Arcadia block.
Arcadia held its final lead of the opening game at 21-20 before San Marino strung together three straight kills by Woo, Moggio and Jared Wang in that order. Soon after, a service error by the Apaches gave San Marino its first game point at 24-22. Arcadia then scored the next two to knot the game at 24. However, the Apaches gave up the next point, committing a violation at the net, and Chan claimed the opener for the hosts with a kill from the outside off the Arcadia blockers to seal the win.
Game two saw Arcadia pull ahead after the early stages and remain in control. The advantage peaked at 11 points on the way to the 25-16 final margin.
In game three Arcadia led by as many as seven points early, but San Marino caught up at 16 on a kill by Chan and then took the lead for good on the next point, a kill from the middle by Moggio. Later, Chan used a soft touch from the outside for a kill, which was followed by a double-touch violation by Arcadia to give the hosts a chance at game point at 24-20. The Apaches stayed in it with two kills after that, but the game came to an end when the Apaches conceded a point to the hosts, making contact with the net in an effort to block Chan. The Apaches never trailed in game four to force the fifth and final game.
“It was an exciting game,” Chan said. “We put up a good fight.”
TITANS FINISH THIRD IN TOURNAMENT
Prior to the nonleague match against Arcadia, San Marino finished play in the Malibu Shark Attack Tournament where the Titans placed third.
The Titans also started play in a tournament hosted by Providence in Burbank and came away with a win against Pasadena Poly, a team San Marino lost to in its season opener.
First published in the March 14 issue of the San Marino Tribune
