Newbury Park Unable to Pull Another Stunner

It looked for a while like it might become a marathon.

But the match ended quickly, and with it a historic season for the Newbury Park High boys’ volleyball team.

The Panthers, vying to upset another higher seeded opponent, were defeated by Dos Pueblos, 15-6, 10-15, 15-12, 15-9, in a Southern Section Division II semifinal Wednesday night at Westlake High.

Newbury Park (21-6), which defeated top-seeded San Marcos in the quarterfinals and was making its first trip to the semifinals, battled back from a lackluster opening game and held a 12-9 lead in the pivotal third game.

Fourth-seeded Dos Pueblos (19-4), however, not only closed out the game by scoring six consecutive points but took permanent control of momentum by taking a 7-1 lead in the fourth game.

Dos Pueblos, making its first trip to the final, will play either Santa Barbara or Mater Dei for the championship Saturday at 4 p.m. at Cypress College.

“We worked the ball around well most of the time,” Dos Pueblos Coach Mike Beresford said.

Newbury Park’s collapse tainted an otherwise tenacious performance. The Panthers rallied to tie four times in the 30-minute third game before Rob Congelliere recorded a kill for a 10-9 lead.

Moments later, Collin McKeown made a kill to extend Newbury Park’s lead to 12-9. But Jess Lillyman’s thunderous spike capped the six-point surge by Dos Pueblos.

“I think we had an off night, and we picked a bad night to have an off night,” Congelliere said. “In the last game you think, ‘Come on, guys. Fight back.’ But it just seemed like we were sinking deeper and deeper into a hole and we couldn’t pull out of it.”

Congelliere, a middle blocker who will attend Brigham Young, had 14 kills and seven blocks.

Mark Davis led the Panthers with 22 kills, McKeown had 16 and Sterling Hannemann had 15. Casey Patterson had 75 assists.

“You can’t give a good team like that a 7-1 lead and expect to come back and win,” Newbury Park Coach Craig Witmer said. “It was tough on us mentally. I wish we would have played better. Every point, every side out was tough.

“We served aggressively, but that led to a lot of errors.”