Skacel’s 37 Kills Drive Eagles Past Mira Costa

It all started with a simple challenge, and there were some speed bumps along the way. But Santa Margarita’s four-game victory over Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the Southern Section Division I boys’ volleyball final Saturday at Cypress College made it all worthwhile.

Marcus Skacel, a 6-foot-5 senior who has signed with Stanford, had 37 kills and 25 digs to lead the Eagles to a 15-11, 14-16, 15-6, 15-6 victory, giving Santa Margarita its first Division I title and second consecutive section title. Santa Margarita defeated Santa Barbara to win the Division II title last season.

“At the beginning of this season, I told Marcus, ‘Everyone knows how good you are,’ ” Santa Margarita Coach Eddie Rapp said, “ ‘but how good can you make your team?’ Well, he made his team great.”

Skacel’s performance left Mira Costa Coach Mike Cook shaking his head.

“I can understand why Stanford recruited him,” Cook said. “He dominated the game. We couldn’t stop him.

“And did we win a game? That’s right, we did. Maybe they let us win that one.”

Dustin Avol had 17 kills to help fourth-seeded Mira Costa win the second game, 16-14, as the Mustangs rallied from being down, 13-6.

But that was the lone bright spot for Mira Costa, which struggled with its passing against Santa Margarita’s tough serving and the Mustangs also had trouble putting the ball away against the Eagles’ scrambling defense.

“Matt Zierhut and John Hinds are two guys who are so full of determination,” Rapp said. “And they get everyone else playing that way too.”

Zierhut had 13 kills, four blocks and 10 digs and Hinds had 18 digs. Andy Mauro finished with 61 assists and 19 digs to lead Eagles to convincing victories in the final two games.

Pretty good for a team that didn’t even win its league.

Santa Margarita finished second in the Sea View League to Newport Harbor, which was seeded No. 1 in Division I. But the Sailors weren’t at full strength for the playoffs, playing without starting setter Travis Nelson (broken finger), and Mira Costa eliminated Newport Harbor in the semifinals.

Santa Margarita battled through numerous injuries in the early part of the season and lost its first two matches to Capistrano Valley and Newport Harbor while Skacel was nursing a rib cage injury.

The Eagles got everybody back for the second half of league season and lost only one match, a five-game thriller to Newport Harbor, with Skacel in the lineup.

“If he’s not in there, we have a chance tonight,” Cook said after the match.

But Skacel was everywhere. He hit from the front row, the back row, the outside and the middle. He had 10 kills in the first game, helping the Eagles score the final six points to close out the first game, 15-11, setting the tone for the match.

“I don’t think we ever expected to win this thing,” Skacel said. “But we believed we could do it. And Coach Rapp kept kicking our butts in practice saying that this is what we’re working for, while we just said, ‘Yeah, right.’

“And to beat a great team with all that tradition, it just means all that more.”