Eleven days after bowing out of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs, the Santa Barbara High girls volleyball team was ready for its CIF Division 3 State Tournament opener.
The Dons were scrappy defensively, and Blake Saunders hammered home powerful spikes, finishing with a match-high 20 kills as Santa Barbara defeated visiting Villa Park 25-20, 25-16, 22-25, 25-15 on Tuesday night at JR Richards Gymnasium.
“I kept telling our girls, ‘We are going to win the match, so just relax. We are going to make a little run here,’ and we almost came all the way back to win that third set. I think that was a confidence builder going into that fourth set,” said Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy. “It can be hard to turn around momentum that quickly, but they made that work.”
The Dons fell behind 12-8 in the first set after a kill by Villa Park outside hitter Joy Aguilar but quickly regrouped. An ace by setter Jules Horton gave Santa Barbara a 21-19 lead.
Grace Costner followed with an ace that increased Santa Barbara’s lead to 24-20, and the Dons clinched the first set when Villa Park hit wide.
The second set followed a similar script, as Santa Barbara fell behind 4-0 before quickly taking control. A kill by Saunders, followed by an ace from Paylin Marcillac, gave the Dons a 7-5 lead, and they never looked back.
Villa Park completed a memorable reverse sweep against Dos Pueblos in the quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Division 6 playoffs and displayed some of that grit in the third set by jumping out to a 16-8 lead.
However, Santa Barbara cut its deficit to 21-20 on a kill by Saunders and took a 22-21 lead after back-to-back net violations by Villa Park.
A cross-court spike by Kira Elliott was initially ruled in by the line judge but was overturned, tying the score at 22-22. Villa Park scored the next three points, capped by a solo block from Devyn Mitchell.
The Dons turned up their defensive intensity in the fourth set and took an 11-10 lead on a great pass by Marcillac that set up a kill by Eloise Becker. Marcillac was a spark plug defensively, finishing with 22 digs and five aces.
“I hate to see a ball drop, and I feel like my whole team thinks the same way,” Marcillac said. “We push each other in practice, which pushes me during the games.”
A kill by Lola Heckman gave the Dons a 24-15 lead, and Santa Barbara went on to clinch the fourth set and the match when Villa Park hit wide.
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