Santa Margarita Boys Outlast Foothill Before Packed House

In a nonleague boys’ volleyball match that felt more like the playoffs than the preseason, No. 1 Santa Margarita topped No. 10 Foothill, 15-17, 15-10, 14-16, 15-3, 15-9, Wednesday at a packed Foothill gym.

“It was a good, hostile crowd,” Santa Margarita Coach John Hawks said. “We were lucky to have some of our fans here, and it helped to hear those cheers.”

Foothill parlayed two early comebacks into a two-games-to-one advantage, wiping out four Santa Margarita leads in the first game and coming back from a 13-6 deficit in the third game.

“We had a lot of momentum going into the fourth game,” Foothill Coach Scott Bruce said, “but we came out flat in the fourth game and slow in the fifth.”

The Eagles cruised in the fourth game and rolled to a 3-0 lead in the fifth before Foothill (1-1) came back again to tie the game twice, the final time at 6-6.

Santa Margarita (3-0) scored the next six points for a 12-6 lead. Foothill closed to within 13-9, but the Eagles’ Damien Scott blocked two shots at the end to seal the victory.

Scott finished with 25 kills, seven blocks and four aces. Teammate Blake Robinson had 19 kills and seven blocks and Jack Pichard had 73 assists.

Kevin Logan had 24 kills, Matt Daniels 15 kills and Ryan Burgess 58 assists for Foothill, which beat No. 2 Mater Dei in three games last week.