BOYS VOLLEYBALL:St. Francis Sweeps Past Gilroy into Semis

St. Francis 3, Gilroy 0

The Star: Senior captain Chris Markuson led the way for the St. Francis High-Mountain View boys volleyball team during a 3-0 victory over Gilroy High Thursday night in a Central Coast Section Division I Boys Volleyball Quarterfinal held at Gilroy High. Markuson recorded a team-high 14 kills, helping his team advance to Saturday’s semifinal round. 

St. Francis took all three games, 25-18, 25-21 and 25-18 to move on to play Bellarmine Prep-San Jose in one of two semifinals in the Division I draw.

Gilroy senior AJ Been gutted out his final match despite rolling his ankle in the early part of the second game. Been finished with four kills, while senior co-captain Dietrich Baumgartner chipped in six kills for the Mustangs. 

Senior Gavin Menges led the host Mustangs with 17 assists.

The Turning Point:  Already down one set, the Mustangs were able to get within one point late in the second game before St. Francis called for a time out that cooled the Mustangs rally.

Ahead 21-20, St Francis came back out with a renewed sense of urgency. The Mustangs ran into a brick wall at the net as the Lancers blockers took control of the second game and the match. St. Francis closed game two on a 4-0 burst and never looked back en route to the clean road sweep.

The Quotes: “Any time you can get a win in the playoffs it’s a good accomplishment and to make it to the semis is one of our goals every year." St Francis head coach Mike Rubin said. “It was a lot of fun playing Gilroy. They have a lot of great athletes.”

St. Francis captain Chris Markuson also was happy to get the win, but knows his team will have to keep improving as the playoffs move forward.

“We played good, but we did get kind of sloppy at certain points,” Markuson said. “But we picked it up and executed our game plan.”

Gilroy head coach Craig Martin enjoyed the ride in 2011.

“This was a great season. We knew we had a lot of talent coming back so we wanted to take T-Cal and we accomplished that,” Gilroy head coach Craig Martin said. “I didn’t mine drawing St. Francis in the playoffs because our kids deserved to be there along with the St. Francis kids.”

What's Next? St. Francis (27-8) will move on to the semis and will face league rival Bellarmine Prep on Saturday afternoon at Independence High School. Game time is set for 1 pm.

Gilroy finishes the season as the league champs in the Tri-County Athletic League with a record of 15-1 in league play and 19-7 overall.

Bottom Line: St Francis swept its way into the next round of play, but an even more formidable foe awaits in the next round. Bellarmine is the No.1 seed in the bracket and finished the regular season with a robust 32-7 record overall.

The Mustangs made things interesting in Game Two, but couldn’t keep the momentum going to close out the second and pivotal dual.

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St Francis Stats

James Shaw 13 kills

Christ Markuson 14 kills

Gilroy Stats

Dietrich Baumgartner 6 kills

AJ Been 4 kills

Gavin Manges 17 assists