APTOS — With their heartbreaking loss in the Central Coast Section Division II championship still fresh in their minds, the Aptos High Mariners had a strong fire brewing in their bellies heading into Tuesday night’s CIF NorCal opener.
Acalanes High threw some gas on the flames.
The No. 5-seeded Dons decided to talk a little trash to an already bouncy and hungry Kacey Losik, and the senior outside hitter let his play do the talking. Losik pummeled the Acalanes defense with a game-high 21 kills, as No. 4 Aptos opened up the D-II regional playoffs with a 25-21, 25-17, 25-18 sweep.
“Usually kids that we play here — in our league — are my friends, so I don’t talk to them, or if I do talk to them, we’re joking,” Losik said. “This kids was serious. I was like ‘alright, I don’t even know you.’ It was fun.”
Fun for Losik and the Mariners (28-5), maybe.
The Dons (28-8), champions of the North Coast Section D-II playoffs, hung tough through the first set, but couldn’t keep pace after stoking the home team’s fire in the second.
Losik showed why he was named the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s Most Valuable Player this season, putting on a clinic of spikes, rolls and serves to numerous spots on the court, and his teammates weren’t too shabby either. Senior outside hitter Jordan Notari added 12 kills, while senior middle blocker Noah Eitzen and junior middle blocker Jackson Shirley combined for seven kills and four blocks.
“[Losik] played to his ability and played confident, but it wasn’t just him today,” said Aptos head coach Jake Landel. “It was the entire team. When everyone is communicating like we did today, we’re pretty unstoppable. It’s hard to beat us.”
Aptos senior setter Michael Spinelli dished 40 crisp assists, sophomore defensive specialist Truman Natividad had six digs and senior libero Christian Segura finished with 15 digs.
“The fuse was already lit and that kind of lit it even more,” said Spinelli, who also made eight digs. “It definitely gave us a big spark. We all wanted to play better after that, because we wanted to show them what’s up.”
The Mariners will need to keep that fire raging heading into their toughest test of the season. Aptos will travel to Pleasanton to play top-seeded Amador Valley High — a three-set winner over No. 8 Del Oro High — on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the CIF NorCal D-II semifinals.
Amador Valley (28-6) is the NCS D-I runner-up and is ranked 33rd in the state. Comparatively, Aptos is ranked 60th in California.
After falling short of a CCS title, the Mariners would like to soften that heartache with the program’s first-ever regional championship.
“That’s happening,” Losik said of the NorCal title. “Aptos has never done that. This team is going to make it happen this year.”
Aptos had nine days off after falling to Branham in the section final without Landel, who was on the East Coast for his sister’s graduation. The Mariners used the extra practice time to refocus their energy into the NorCal tournament, and their work was on full display from the first point to the last.
The smack talk at the net only made them fight harder.
“We’re rejuvenated,” Spinelli said. “That loss to Branham was pretty tough and it got us down in the dumps. But we came back and had a good solid week of practice. Monday was probably our best day of practice, and it showed.”
