CARLSBADCARLSBAD — There’s the traditional lineup of Parker Tomkinson and Roman Payne in the middle. That’s probably where a 7-foot and 6-10 duo should go on the volleyball court.
Then there’s Carlsbad’s lineup with Payne in the middle and Tomkinson on the outside, which paved the way to a top-20 boys volleyball national ranking throughout this season.
But with Payne out of the country for Tuesday’s CIF SoCal Division 2 quarterfinal match against Del Norte, the logical solution was to position Tomkinson — simply put — everywhere.
The result was a 25-15, 26-24, 13-25, 27-25 Lancers victory that kept their strange season going for at least two more days.
Carlsbad will play at Redondo Union on Thursday in the regional semifinals with the winner moving to Saturday’s regional state championship.
“It’s been a long year,” coach Andy Tomkinson said following his team’s 37th match of the season. “You have to make sure these guys’ hearts are still in it. Fortunately we got the W today, and we get to play another day.”
Payne had three blocks and scored six points Tuesday. Unfortunately for the Lancers, he did so with the Team USA U19 team playing in the NORCECA Continental Championship in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Carlsbad has been playing without the Hawaii commit since the second round of the CIF San Diego bracket nearly two weeks ago.
And as they’ve been doing for a fortnight, the Lancers (26-11) turned to Parker Tomkinson to lead the way.
The USC-bound senior finished with a match-high 29 kills despite the Nighthawks’ blocking scheme keying on him all night.
In the first set, he notched eight kills from the following spots: four on the outside, two bics, one on the right side and one in the middle. Ten of his next 11 kills were on the outside (one bic).
In the final set, his eight kills were spread around to four on the outside, one on the right side, one pipe, and on match point, a hammer out of the middle.
Pressure can squeeze carbon into a diamond.
“I know that I have to everything well, I have to keep the ball in and I’ve accepted the role of being the one who probably hits the ball every point,” said Parker, who earned his 1,000th career kill in the third set. “I’ve just been working on breathing exercises mid-game and that helps a lot.”
The Nighthawks (23-14) will kick themselves for not closing out in the second set when they had their best chance. Up 24-22, they watched Tomkinson get a kill in serve receive but had a chance to close it out with him going to the back row. Three perfect es turned into three balls hit out and a subsequent 26-24 set loss.
Del Norte also had set point at 24-23 in the fourth set but made three errors on the next four plays.
Despite also making 10 errors in the first set, the Nighthawks stayed with the hosts thanks to their powerful arms on the outside in Will Bartelt and Ike Vernon. The duo combined for 33 kills.
“Second year in a row we’ve finished third in Open,” Nighthawks coach Chris Shaffer said. “In my three years coaching here, it’s been great to see us progress. From never making Open to this group of seniors finishing with a top 20 ranking in California, it’s pretty cool to see how far we’ve come not just this season but the past couple years.”
Carlsbad has a big arm of its own on the outside in Derek Bashford, who finished with nine kills and 11 digs. Tomkinson also had 11 digs.
The Lancers also have some senior leadership, which came in handy when things tilted against them Tuesday.
“Especially when we’re down it’s important for at least one person to keep the hopes up for everyone else,” senior opposite Hayden Hewitt said. “That was probably my biggest role tonight leadership-wise between points and between sets.”
Meehan is a freelance writer.
