STORY BY MATT SIMON
Heading into Wednesday night’s CIF Division 4 semifinal matchup at Jack Errion Gym the St. Anthony boys’ volleyball team had already set the bar for the program regardless of the match outcome.
St. Anthony Coach Alicia Lemau’u had that same message for her team after the Saints lost to Los Altos 20-25, 25-21, 29-31, 25-19, 15-11.
“I told them they already made history,” Lemau’u said. “We were just chasing a little bit more and just push it as far as we could.”
It was an uncharacteristic night for the Saints (29-4) as they got off to slow start trailing Los Altos a majority of the first set until going on a 5-point run to take the opening set 25-20.
“That was different for us,” Lemau’u said. “We usually start strong and we always climbed back near the end, and the scores never showed we started slow.”
Junior Eamon Pool-Harris was stellar for the Saints with 18 kills on the night, while senior Aidan Grosz added 13 kills.
On the opposite side of the net, Los Altos’s Jordan Lucas was stellar on the night and seemed to have an answer anytime the Saints started to get some momentum.
“That dude is a baller,” Grosz said, a Long Beach State commit. “Hats off to him, we couldn’t really stop him. His attacking, he was super smart with his shots. He was just one of those players that is just hard to stop.
After Los Altos took the second set, St. Anthony took the third set 31-29 holding off a furious comeback attempt.
But, in the fourth set Los Altos went on a 11-1 run and the Saints just couldn’t chip away at the lead enough before falling 25-19.
In the final set, Los Altos led wire-to-wire taking the lead for good after St. Anthony tied the set at 2-2.
