The St. Patrick-St. Vincent High boys volleyball team had its 2015 season come to an end Wednesday night after a 25-14, 25-18, 25-18 loss to top-seeded Moreau Catholic in the North Coast Section Division III semifinals in Hayward.

The Bruins had several players either feeling ill or getting over an illness and were no match for Moreau Catholic, which swept SPSV for the second time this year. The Mariners (20-11) advanced to the NCS D-III finals Saturday night against No. 3 seed Berean Christian and also earned a berth into the Northern California Regional Tournament. The No. 4 seeded Bruins (26-10) missed reaching NorCals for the first time since 2010.

“We had a few sick boys and a couple getting back from being sick – not a good combination to have in the playoffs,” said SPSV head coach Danette Domecus. “Whatever’s going around is not good.”

The Bruins weren’t very good early and didn’t start playing well until the third set when it was too late. SPSV committed several unforced errors and had a hard time stopping Moreau Catholic senior Dante Legaspi, who had a match-high 17 kills.

“We matched up pretty well with them if we played our game, but we beat ourselves,” said SPSV senior libero John Cuevas. “We were making untimely errors and hitting a bunch of balls out.”

“They definitely out-played us,” Domecus added. “I thought we might have had that third set but we started slowing down and Moreau went full bore.”

Cuevas had 13 digs and Dominic Nicolas had 17 assists for the Bruins. Deo Boongaling had six kills and five digs, Max King added five kills, Patrick Basco chipped in with four kills, and Ryan Villaseran finished with three kills and five digs.

“It’s really disappointing not getting to the NCS championship game or NorCals, but there aren’t too many teams who get to play in the playoffs,” Domecus said. “I’m still proud of what we accomplished this season and our seniors played hard all the way through.”

“We played tough all year and it was a pretty good season,” Cuevas said. “We wanted redemption in the playoffs but unfortunately we didn’t get it. But hopefully we’ve set a stepping stone for the future.”

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