Santa Margarita Makes Short Work of Mater Dei

It was supposed to be the first of two showdowns in the Serra League, but the real Mater Dei boys’ volleyball team was a no-show Thursday.

Santa Margarita, the top-ranked team in the county, dominated eighth-ranked Mater Dei and cruised to a 15-5, 15-7, 15-3 victory at Santa Margarita High in a match that took barely an hour.

Princeton-bound senior Blake Robinson had 16 kills and 10 digs and senior Damien Scott had 12 kills and four blocks for the Eagles (10-0, 2-0 in league), who scored the first eight points. Mater Dei (5-3, 1-1) never recovered.

“We’ve been looking forward to this match,” Robinson said. “We came out ready. Sure, winning like this gives us some confidence, but we still need to take care of business.”

Santa Margarita had six blocks in the first game to set the tone as the Monarchs struggled with their hitting throughout the match.

How bad did it get for Mater Dei? Kill leader Jonathan Daze had nine kills but eight hitting errors. Mater Dei finished with 25 kills and 24 hitting errors.

The Monarchs didn’t look like a team that has among its victories best-of-five or best-of-three wins against second-ranked Foothill and third-ranked Fountain Valley.

Mater Dei middle blocker Joe Groff had five kills and five blocks, but Mater Dei’s passing didn’t make it easy for setter Mike Gazzano (21 assists, six digs) to get the ball consistently to the middle.

“Our hitters produced nothing today,” Mater Dei Coach Tom Costanzo said. “Our passing was shaky at times, but our hitters needed to do something smarter instead of always trying to pound it through the block.

“This is a funny team. When we’re up for a match, we can play with anyone. Today, we lost our composure.”