L.A. Loyola Eliminates San Clemente

Gabe Gardner’s 36 kills weren’t enough as visiting San Clemente lost a five-game match to third-seeded Los Angeles Loyola in the Division I boys’ volleyball quarterfinals Friday night.

The Cubs (18-1) trailed two games to one before pulling out the match, 9-15, 15-11, 11-15, 15-5, 15-9.

“It doesn’t get any better than this, “ San Clemente Coach Mike Hurlbut said. “You have two teams that absolutely left everything they had on the court.”

Corin Bemus had 13 kills, Eric Krogh had 12 and Brandon Taliaferro added 63 set assists for the Tritons (14-4).

With a 2-1 game lead, San Clemente jumped to a 4-0 lead in game four, before making seven hitting errors to trail, 9-4. San Clemente scored one more point on a block by Danny Serpa, but Loyola’s Dan Farmer recorded two kills and a block as the Cubs took game four.

San Clemente had an 8-6 lead in the fifth game before Loyola rallied. Davey Olson sparked the Cubs with seven kills in the second half of the final game.

Loyola advances to Wednesday’s semifinals against the winner of Laguna Beach-Santa Barbara match at a site to be determined.

In another Division I match:

Laguna Beach 3, Santa Barbara 1--Dan Styles had 28 kills and four blocks and Szilard Kovacs had 18 kills and 16 blocks for host Laguna Beach which won, 15-17, 15-8, 15-10, 20-18. Beau Bianchi had 15 kills and setter Kurt Nelson had 68 assists for the Artists (18-1), who advanced to the semifinals to play Los Angeles Loyola.