A stirring comeback in the first set by the Santa Barbara High girls volleyball team wasn’t enough to throw off a talented San Diego-Helix in the Division 3 semifinals of the CIF State Tournament South Regional.
Helix, the San Diego Section’s Division 2 runner-up, won most of the long rallies and used strong serving and a potent outside attack to end Santa Barbara’s season, 21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-22, on Saturday night at J.R. Richards Gym.
The loss ended Santa Barbara’s best run in state tournament competition.
“This is the most successful team that I’ve been part of since I’ve been coaching here,” said Kristin Hempy. “I’ve been coaching here six years and I would say even though we won CIF our first year, we’re in a higher division, we went further in the state tournament this year, and it’s all these girls. They’ve been together for two to three years, a lot of them on varsity, and you can see on the court right now with the emotion that they love each other, they love the team and they just really wear their hearts on their sleeves and are willing to do everything for their teammates.”
The Dons threw their bodies on the floor, scrambled to the back wall of the gym to keep balls in play; they jumped and reached higher on attacks and blocks, and one player — starting setter Jules Horton — raced back from a USA Water Polo tournament that afternoon in L.A. to play in the match.
“I thought there was a lot of sacrifice on defense tonight, a lot of effort on offense, and yeah, they’re a special group, and it’s been really a honor to coach them this season,” said Hempy.
Santa Barbara battled back from a 17-12 deficit in the first set. Eloise Becker sparked a 6-1 run with block, a pick-up of a blocked ball that led to a kill by middle Lola Heckman and a service ace to tie the score at 18.
Helix responded and took a 21-18 advantage. But the Dons came back behind the tough serving of Grace Costner. She scored on back-to-back serves to put her team back on top, 22-21. On the next play, Heckman and Stella Peus combined on a block before Blake Saunders finished off the comeback with consecutive kills.
“That was the toughest team we’ve faced so far,” said Helix coach Zoe Varela Beltz of the Dons. “Big hitters, defensively they did great… it was a fun game. Both teams showed up to play.”
The Dons never could build a big lead against Helix’s aggressive attack and stout back-row defense. Outside hitters Aliyah Bowser and freshman Jolene Swiggers continually put pressure on the Santa Barbara defense.
Beltz called the high-flying Bowser “an incredible force at the net and a great leader on our team.” She said of the quick-swinging Swiggers: “She’s amazing. She just keeps getting better every game.”
Hempy knew her team had to contain Bowser and Swiggers to get through this match.
“They did some damage for sure. I thought we made some adjustments that kind of helped in certain sets, but when you come up against such big weapons like that, you know they’re going to get some and just try to make sure you get more. And in this one, they got a couple more than us, unfortunately,” she said.
The hitting, blocking and tough serving by the Highlanders helped them take a 17-11 lead in the second set. The Dons battled back and pulled to 23-22 on a kill by Kira Elliott. But Swiggers sided out and Santa Barbara committed a hitting error to give Helix the set and square the match at 1-1.
Helix kept the pressure on and went up 16-10 in the third set. Saunders brought Santa Barbara to within one (21-20) before the Highlanders closed out the set with four straight points.
The teams went back and forth in the fourth set. A couple of kills by Elliott pulled the Dons to 21-20 and 22-21, but that was followed by back-to-back miscues that put Helix at match point (24-21). The Highlanders scored the match-winning point on a Santa Barbara hitting error.
“We definitely struggled a little bit to put some of those away,” Hempy said of some missed scoring opportunities. “We make an amazing effort and then you gotta capitalize on that dig that Paylin (Marcillac, the libero) is flying across the floor to make and make sure you win that rally. I think that’s where the big guns they had came in.
“I was telling the girls everything was point for point and, unfortunately, they just had a little more than us tonight.”
Saunders led the Dons with a double-double of 19 kills and 11 digs and a pair of aces, Elliott put down 11 kills, Heckman had seven and Jacqueline Durling added four. Defensively, Marcillac picked up 18 digs, Becker had 11, Costner had six digs and two aces and Heckman recorded two blocks. Becker dished out 29 assists and Horton finished with 16.
“They left it all on the court and I’m proud of their amazing season: league champions, 28-12 overall, CIF-SS semifinalists and State semifinalists,” said Hempy.
