CORONA — Playing from behind is dangerous.

Wednesday, the Santiago boys volleyball team overcame a two-set deficit against top-seeded Westlake and won a five-set thriller.

Saturday afternoon, the Sharks again dropped the first two sets of a playoff match. This time, they were unable to overcome that deficit and were swept by Santa Barbara 25-21, 25-16, 30-28 in a CIF Southern Section Division 4 semifinal match.

Santiago finished 23-9, a campaign that included an undefeated Big VIII League title and first semifinal appearance in 18 years.

Spencer Tran had nine kills to lead Santiago.

“We’ve got a lot of these guys coming back next year, so hopefully this is something for us to continue to build upon,” Sharks coach Courtney Krueger said. “What impressed me was the perspective they showed in our huddle, led by Carson (Chambers), who said it best when he said the best way to go out is fighting together. And that’s what they did in that final set.”

Santa Barbara (18-10) took a 6-1 lead in the opening set following a kill by Luke Zuffelato. Trailing 16-9, the Sharks pieced together a 10-4 run and cut the deficit to a point on a kill by Reyce Ongalibang. However, mistakes marred Santiago’s comeback attempt as a pair of attacking errors, a service error, and a net violation helped Santa Barbara take the set.

Then the Dons went on a 15-1 run to start the second set and led 16-2, with Hayes Costner serving four aces in a seven-point span. From that point, Santiago outscored the Dons 15-9 behind a pair of kills from Pierce Willardson and two more from Tran, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

It was more of the same in third set as Santa Barbara jumped out to a 7-2 lead behind two kills from Benicio Duarte, a combination block by Duarte and Carter Hubbard, and another kill from Zuffelato.

Trailing 15-10, Santiago went on a 5-2 run and cut the lead to 17-15 after two kills from Tran, one from Willardson and an ace by Santiago Mancera.

Duarte’s kill gave the Dons match point at 24-22, but Santiago staved off six match points behind three kills by Willardson, two by Logan Chambers and one from Ongalibang. Hubbard’s ace pushed Santa Barbara across the finish line and into next week’s championship match against Sage Hill, which will be played Friday or Saturday at either Cerritos College or a campus site.

“I knew that Santiago was better than what they showed in the first couple of sets, and to their credit they fought in the third,” Dons coach Chad Arneson said. “Some of these trips can be tough, but I couldn’t have been happier with how we came out to start the match. And I’m just so happy for my guys, particularly the 10 seniors who will get to experience a championship match next weekend.”

Duarte had 10 kills for the Dons.