Santa Margarita Gives Laguna Beach a Pounding

Santa Margarita surprisingly cruised through the semifinals with a three-game victory over Laguna Beach in the Southern Section Division I boys’ volleyball playoffs Wednesday at Corona del Mar High.

Marcus Skacel had 20 kills and teammate Matt Zierhut added 12 kills and seven blocks for the Eagles, who won, 15-5, 16-14, 15-1.

What was unusual about Wednesday’s victory was how easy the Eagles made it look.

Santa Margarita (16-3) didn’t beat up a patsy. Third-seeded Laguna Beach (17-3), which has won five section titles, was trying to reach its eighth final. The Artists also won their 10th consecutive Pacific Coast League championship this season.

But second-seeded Santa Margarita won its fourth-consecutive three-game match in the playoffs and advanced to Saturday’s final at Cypress College to play Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, which defeated top-seeded Newport Harbor in five games Wednesday.

Laguna Beach tried to make it interesting, rallying from an eight-point deficit in the second game, scoring 10 of the next 11 points to take a lead.

But after Laguna Beach’s Miles McGann (15 kills) spiked for a kill to make it 14-14, two hitting errors and a setting error eventually gave Santa Margarita the game, 16-14.

That seemed to take the fight out of Laguna Beach, which fell behind, 11-0, in the third game before losing, 15-1.

“They served us tough and our passing was off,” Laguna Beach Coach Shawn Patchell said. “I’m disappointed we didn’t execute that well tonight because we’ve had a good season. But you can’t take anything away from Santa Margarita. They just beat us.”

Santa Margarita senior John Hinds had five of his seven kills in the first game to spark the Eagles. And everyone contributed, especially on defense.

Middle blocker Dekker McKeever, a 6-foot-7 senior who was also a center for the Eagles’ state championship basketball team, had five blocks. Skacel (four blocks, 24 digs), Andy Mauro (12 digs), Adam Breault (two blocks, 11 digs) and Zierhut (11 digs) kept the ball from hitting the floor.

“We played with a lot of determination tonight,” Santa Margarita Coach Eddie Rapp said. “There was no doubt in their mind. They weren’t going to go home losers.”