Dos Pueblos celebrates its victory over San Marcos in straight sets. | Credit: Victor Bryant

After defeating rival San Marcos in straight sets Thursday evening, 25-20, 25-17, 25-16, an outright Channel League title is within reach for the Dos Pueblos High girls’ volleyball team.

The Chargers shared the Channel League title with San Marcos in 2019 but have not finished alone atop the league standings since 2011. With a win over Lompoc on Tuesday, that long-awaited achievement will be realized.

#10 Chloe Hoffman goes up for a serve in the third set.

“We’ve been harping on preparation and how important it is to not sleep on what we’re doing before the match, what we’re doing warming up, what we’re doing when we’re on the court and off the court, and that it all matters,” said Dos Pueblos coach Megan O’Carroll. “The girls took that to heart, and we had a great week of practice.”

Dos Pueblos (8-1 Channel League) was locked in from the opening serve and got big performances from its two primary hitters Portia Sherman and Chloe Hoffman, who finished with 13 and 12 kills respectively. But O’Carroll emphasized the importance of a balanced attack and Makeila Cervantes answered the call and chipped in with 10 kills, making the Chargers almost impossible to stop.

“Diversifying our offense is another big thing we’ve been working on. Chloe and Portia are incredible. We know that and every team we play also knows that and game plans are built around stopping them,” O’Carroll said. “We knew that getting our middles involved and getting Makeila involved was going to be the key to us being successful.”

San Marcos (6-3 Channel League) came into the match looking to create a three-way tie for first place in the Channel League, but struggled with service errors in the opening set and never recovered. The Royals are now looking up at Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara in the standings. San Marcos was led by Eloise McGibben, who finished with 12 kills. 


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