St. Joseph's Gavin Galanski, near the net, smashed down on the ball for an authoritative kill Thursday night, and the Knights had a 3-0 sweep of a determined Nipomo squad and their Mountain League record remained intact.
The Knights' boys volleyball squad moved to 11-1, 4-0 with their 25-6, 25-12, 25-23 win at St. Joseph's Hofschulte Gym. The Titans are 1-7, 1-3.
"We won the league championship last year," said St. Joseph junior setter Braeden Rappozo after he and Knights senior libero Will Hartman combined for 31 serving points Thursday night. Rappozo racked up 17 points and Hartman had 14.
Unofficially, Galanski was St. Joseph's kills leader with seven.
Rappozo said, "We went out in the quarterfinals of the playoffs last year. We think we can make a bigger run this year. We didn't lose any middles from last year."
Nipomo eliminated St. Joseph 3-2 in the playoffs last year. Nipomo was then eliminated by Arroyo Grande in the Division 2 semifinals before falling to Fresno Central 3-2 in the final.
If the Knights keep serving the way they did in the first two games Thursday night, their chances for a deep playoff run will be bolstered. St. Joseph servers in general, and Rappozo and Hartman in particular, consistently handcuffed the Titans defenders with their hard, deep serves in the first two games.
Serving has generally been a strength for the Knights and, "We're getting to the serving level we were at last year," said Hartman.
Hartman is a four-year varsity player. Rappozo is in his third varsity season.
The match began with a Caedin Hamilton kill to end a Nipomo service possession. The 6-foot-9 Hamilton was a senior standout for the 2022-23 St. Joseph basketball team that won the CIF Central Section Division 1 championship and the Northern California Open Division Regional title before falling to Studio City Harvard-Westlake, the No. 1 team basketball team in California, in the Open Division state championship game.
Unofficially, Hamilton finished with four kills and had a tip for another point.
Rappozo served an ace after the Hamilton kill gave the Knights a sideout, Galanski rammed a shot through the Titans block for another point and St. Joseph seemed to be on its way to rolling to a sweep.
That's the way it appeared for about two-and-a-half games anyway. Then, trailing 16-7 in the third game, the Titans tightened things up considerably.
Rappozo served a ball into the net after serving three straight points to give the Knights their 16-7 lead in game three, and the Titans' play began to perk up.
Alex Cortez, aided by a tip and a block by Karl Dimodica that went for points, served five straight points, and he and Preston Krier led a Nipomo hitting attack that picked up at that point.
Meanwhile the Knights started being caught out of position more often, and their errors began to mount. Nipomo pulled to with 23-22 then, with the Titans down 24-22 on Rappozo's serve, Izzy Areviao saved a match point for the Titans with a beautifully placed left-to-right shot that landed in.
Seconds later, though, Galanski promptly ended it and sent the Knights to a 4-0 Mountain League mark.
Hartman gives the Knights steady defense from his libero spot. Rappozo, who is actually a capable hitter himself, has a lot of reliable options when it comes to who to set the ball to, including Galanski, Hamilton, Lucas Mayes and Zeke Nelson, among others.
"It makes it easier on the setter when you have that many options," said Rappozo.
"We're ahead of where we were last year," Rappozo said. "We lost (in the quarterfinals) last year because of inexperience. We're more experienced this year."
St. Joseph will play at Santa Ynez next Tuesday night in a 6 p.m. league match. Nipomo will host Arroyo Grande at the same time in another league match. Â
Photos: St. Joseph hosts Nipomo in CIF volleyball
Kenny Cress is a sports reporter for the Santa Maria Times, covering local sports in northern Santa Barbara County. You can send information or story ideas to him by emailing it to KCress@SantaMariaTimes.com.
