As his Santa Barbara High boys water polo team heads into the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs this week against Dana Hills, coach Mark Walsh recalled the days when it was a scramble to get tape on a playoff opponent from out of the area.
“What’s great about this day and age is kids can go find games (online),” he told those in attendance at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.
“It used to be you’d have to get a video from somebody, bring in your VHS, and then show it to (the players) and say, ‘Hey, I got this video.’ But now everything is online. They can find stuff before you can find it.
“So they’ve already broke down a lot of stuff as I was waiting for videos from other people. We think we have a pretty good handle of what (Dana Hills) is going to do.”
The Dons, who won the Division 3 title back in 2019, were seeded third in the 16-team Division 1 bracket.
They play Dana Hills on Wednesday at 5 p.m. A victory advances them to the quarterfinals on Saturday.
“We’re excited for the game, and we’re excited for CIF,” said Walsh, who before the season wasn’t sure a full campaign could be pulled off due to the pandemic.
There was no season in the fall of 2020, but the CIF allowed for a two-week window of games for boys water polo in the spring.
“I was honestly thinking, ‘Is it really going to happen? Are we going to get through a whole season?’” said Walsh. “With Covid, we just didn’t know. Will our program get shut down or other teams get shut down?”
Walsh expressed gratitude for being able to talk about his team going to the playoffs.
“To be here today and actually think about CIF opponents and winning CIF championships, it seems really strange, because I didn’t know if it was necessarily going to happen when we all started,” he admitted. “It’s flown by, it’s been really exciting, and we’re excited to see it the rest of the way through.”
Walsh introduced Athlete of the Week Ryan Drake, who scored 10 goals in the Channel League Tournament championship win over San Marcos.
“He’s an outstanding player,” said Walsh of his senior. “He’s been our leading scorer. As a sophomore, he was starting, but wasn’t one of our main players. And last year, obviously, was a very short season. So this year is his first opportunity to really show what he can do.”
Walsh noted that the last 10-goal performance by a Don was Sawyer Rhodes during his senior season in 2016. Rhodes went on to Stanford, transferred to USC, where he won a NCAA national championship, and is now playing as a fifth-year senior at UCSB.
SANTA BARBARA HIGH GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Coach Kristin Hempy is taking the Dons to the CIF Finals in her first year at the helm.
Santa Barbara will host El Rancho (also called the Dons) in the Division 6 title match on Saturday at 5 p.m.
“I’m just really, really proud of the girls to see how far they’ve come this season,” she said. “I was coming my first year into the program, so I didn’t know the girls, and they didn’t know me. We didn’t know where we would be, so it’s really a privilege to be at the place that we’re at.”
Shae Delany, the female Athlete of the Week, is one of the reasons the Dons have excelled this season.
“I’m super excited and proud of Shay for winning that recognition. She really deserves it,” said Hempy. “It’s been really fun to coach her this season. She’s got a volleyball brain. If you’ve ever seen this young lady play, she really understands the game, the pace of the game, the momentum of the game.
“She definitely is one of our more consistent offensive and defensive players. It’s really fun to see her when she gets fired up and competitive on the court.”
SBCC FOOTBALL
After suffering a second straight loss (37-22 against Antelope Valley), coach Craig Moropoulos noticed his team was making a lot of “young mistakes.”
He then remembered the majority of the players on his squad are in their first season of college football.
“We have five sophomores out of 88 guys,” he said. “A lot of people are like that because of the pandemic, especially at our level. So, we have 83 freshmen playing and it’s showed. But it’s also showed some special talent.”
First-year players quarterback Alex Johnson of Seattle and defensive lineman Jordan Tagaloa out of Bishop Diego are two of the special talents Moropoulos was talking about.
Johnson has started two games and thrown for over 200 yards in both. Tagaloa made several plays going up against a tough Antelope Valley front.
In addition to his talent on the football field, Moropoulos called Tagaloa, “one of the most respectful young men I’ve ever been around. And I don’t mind championing him because he’s an absolute good person all the way through.”
The Vaqueros (4-3 overall and 1-2 in the American Pacific League) travel to Moorpark on Saturday night.
UCSB WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch has her team on a roll. The Gauchos ran their Big West record to 11-1 after taking road matches at UC Irvine in five sets and UC San Diego in four.
“We are in first place with Hawai’i, but we hold the tiebreaker over them right now since we beat them a couple of weeks ago here at home,” said Welch.
The coach highlighted the play of Michelle Ohwobete and Deni Wilson at the net, and the setting and defense of Grace Kloss.
The Gauchos (15-9), riding a four-match win streak, are home against Cal State Bakersfield on Friday and Cal Poly on Saturday.
SAN MARCOS GIRLS BASKETBALL
Coach Tiffany Sims returns her entire squad that finished in a tie for second place behind Santa Barbara.
She introduced point guard Ariel Plourde, solid defender Mia Martinez-Tomatis and Miya Lehman, who is coming off a knee injury.
The Royals open the season Nov. 29 against Oxnard.
Simms said the team is currently playing in a fall league in Burbank and is improving all the time.
“Our team’s just getting stronger, better chemistry-wise, working hard getting to know each other,” she said.
The Royals have two seniors and the rest are sophomores.
“So, we just look forward to growing and getting older and working together… And to beat Santa Barbara this year. That’s our number one goal,” said Simms with a smile.
WESTMONT MEN’S SOCCER
The Warriors have been doing a lot of chasing this season, said coach Dave Wolf, referring to conceding the first goal in matches.
“Soccer is a difficult enough game to play without having to, what we call chase games all the time, play from behind all the time. And we’ve done a good bit of that this year,” he said
Westmont did it again in its regular season finale at William Jessup, conceding a penalty kick in the second minute of a game it needed to win to make the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament.
“I thought, ‘Here we go again. This is just kind of how this season is going to unfold,’” Wolf lamented.
But the team responded with a goal in the 15th minute.
“And then we had a very cathartic experience of scoring another six goals unanswered, and just felt a whole lot better at the end of the game,” said Wolf.
The Warriors now head up to Menlo on Saturday for a quarterfinal match in the GSAC Tournament.
“It’s a very, very good opponent, but I feel like maybe we had a little bit of a breakthrough last Saturday,” said Wolf. “Hopefully we can continue that into the conference tournament.”
WESTMONT WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
The Warriors are trying to hang on to second place in the GSAC and qualify for the NAIA Tournament.
They lost last week to first-place Ottawa University of Arizona to fall a game and a half behind.
“That probably means that we’re out of the running for the top position because we got only three games left,” reported Ron Smith, the school’s sports information director.
The Warriors hold a two-and-half game lead on second place. One win in their last three matches will seal the automatic berth to the national tournament.
Westmont plays all three matches on the road, starting Friday at Menlo.
Smith noted that freshman middle Sarah Kruger was named the GSAC and NAIA Defensive Player of the Week after recording 15 blocks in two wins last week. She had 11 against Hope International.
WESTMONT WOMEN’S SOCCER
The Warriors clinched the GSAC regular-season title to earn the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament, which they will host on Nov. 11 and 13.
In the title-clinching win, sophomore Daisy Alvarez scored on a free kick with three minutes left in the second overtime period to beat William Jessup, 2-1.
“She’s now four for five on those types of free kicks, so she’s just kind of a magician with the ball on those,” said assistant coach Lauren Matthias.
The GSAC title was the 100th overall for Westmont Athletics.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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