Ignorance is bliss, too young to know any better, nothing to lose.
All those sayings were proven true yet again on Wednesday Night at JR Richards Gym as the Santa Barbara High girls volleyball team — a squad without a senior in its starting lineup — overcame a 2-0 deficit and completed a reverse sweep against Paraclete in the first round of the CIF-SS Div. 5 playoffs.
The Dons came away with the 3-2 win with set scores consisting of 23-25, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 15-13.
“It is hard mentally to kind of wrap your mind around being down 0-2 and come back from that, but we just try to start every set with a new mentality and the girls just did an amazing job at that,” Santa Barbara High head coach Kristin Hempy said.
With the win, Santa Barbara High (17-14) will now host Sacred Heart on Saturday, with the time to be determined.
The Dons were led by junior middle blocker Lola Heckman and junior outside hitter Blake Saunders, with both refusing to throw in the towel despite multiple runs by Paraclete in the third and fourth sets. The juniors finished with 18 kills and 13 kills, respectively.
“Through the first and second sets, we were just saying, like, if this is gonna be our last game, we have to give it our all and put everything out there, and I think that’s what we did,” Saunders said.
“We have a lot of youth, which has its disadvantages, but one thing about them is they bounce back super quick, and we needed every bit of that.”
“I didn’t want to give up,” Heckman said. “I just wanted to play and to win. I didn’t want to lose this team. We’re a great team, and we’ve got a lot of hustle, and I think I just locked in mentally there.”
The final set was filled with plenty of drama. Heckman recorded three kills in the first nine points to give her team a 7-2 advantage. The Spirits did not go down without a fight, however.
Junior Emma Watts, who finished with a match-high 24 kills and six aces, came up with a pair of kills and a pair of aces to tie the fifth set at 11-11.
A crucial mistake by the Spirits turned out to be their undoing, as they were penalized with an out-of-rotation penalty down 12-11, making the score 13-11 in favor of the Dons.
An attack error by Watts gave Santa Barbara a 14-11 lead, and Heckman eventually put the contest away at 15-13.
“I would say there were definitely nerves, but at the same time, I just really wanted it to be over. I just wanted the dub so bad, and boom,” Heckman said with a laugh. “I’m just so glad that we came back and it’s pretty sick that we got to win.”
The Dons’ comeback started in the third set. Tied at 15-15, Santa Barbara, which made a slew of defensive changes to try to get Paraclete out of system, went on a huge 9-0 run, which included three aces from junior opposite Stella Peus.
In the fourth set, Saunders came up big, knocking down three of her 13 kills as the Dons again went on a big run, finishing the set 14-7 after being tied at 11.
“This match really reminded me of a match we had at the beginning of the year, where they just, they never say die. It would be kind of easy to throw in the towel down 0-2, but they never even considered that,” Hempy said.
Despite falling behind 2-0, it was clear that the Dons were not that far behind the Spirits. In the first set, Santa Barbara trailed 10-5 early, but eventually caught the visitors at 17 after a kill by Saunders.
The two sides traded points until Heckman came up big with back-to-back kills to give the Dons a 20-19 lead, before ultimately losing 23-25.
The second set had a similar feel, with the Dons coming out aggressive and taking an 8-4 lead before a huge Paraclete run would level the score at 10-10 and eventually again at 20-20 before the Spirits took control to go up 2-0.
“Blake is a great leader. She’s grown by leaps and bounds since last year and I just couldn’t say enough good things about her, and Lola has that huge height advantage and can really hammer it when she connects,” Hempy said.
Kira Elliott also had a big night at the net with 14 kills, while Paylin Marcillac picked up 31 digs. Jules Horton facilitated the offense well with 38 total assists.
“I’m very excited, and I hope to go all the way. I can only hope for the best, so we’ll keep fighting our way up until we are Division 5 champs,” Saunders said.