Dos Pueblos girls volleyball coach Dillan Bennett called it “The 23-Point Monkey.”
It goes back to the first meeting against Santa Barbara, when the Chargers couldn’t get past 23 points in three sets and lost the match in four.
DP broke through barrier in the rematch on Tuesday night and beat the Dons, 19-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-11, at Sovine Gym.
“We conquered that 23-point monkey twice in Game 2 and Game 3,” said Bennett after the emotional Channel League win. “I’ll tell you those girls lit up when they finally scored that 24th point against Santa Barbara High.”
The victory leaves the Chargers at 3-4 and the Dons at 3-3 in league play.
It also marked the first time Bennett defeated Santa Barbara as a player and a coach.
“I told the girls it was a first for all of us,” the second-year coach said. “I never won as a player, we lost to them twice last year and lost this year. Tonight, for all of us, we finally got the monkey off our back and took down the Dons at home. That was really important for all of us.”
A key to Dos Pueblos’ success on Tuesday was the play of Camilla Tamburini and Lorenza Carchidio, exchange students from Italy. Tamburini was a force as a hitter and blocker on the outside and was stellar in passing serves. Carchidio provided tough serving and added to DP’s strength in the middle.
Carchidio’s serving enabled the Chargers to pull away in the fourth set. With a 10-9 lead, she reeled off three aces during five-point service run.
“Lorenza has a pretty good serve,” Bennett said. “It’s a little different, some times it floats, some times it spins, some times it drops, some times it goes deep. I think (Santa Barbara) got stuck in a funky rotation and, lucky us, we got a number of aces from Lorenza in that rotation, which really busted open the game.”
“I was so into the game,” said the 6-foot Carchidio, who had 7 kills, 4 aces and 2 digs in the match. “All the emotion brought me to score all those serves.”
She felt the difference in the match was how the team stayed together.
“We really stuck together and there was a really good feeling between the players. That helped a lot,” she said.
Tamburini got the Chargers going in the second set with two aces during six-point run to start the set. The 5-11 outside attacker also provided offensive punch in the second and third sets. She tied the score at 14-14 in the third set with a kill and, after a Santa Barbara setting error, delivered again for a 16-14 lead.
“That Italian girl is really good,” Santa Barbara coach John Gannon said of Tamburini. “She’s a tall player, she’s smart, she can hit with pace; she definitely hurt us. I was surprised how well she passed the ball. She is a huge difference maker with her steadiness on the court.”
The Italian girls didn’t play in the first Santa Barbara match, as they weren’t eligible until the first of October.
“After three months, they were chomping at the bit to play,” said Bennett. “Those girls were drooling on the sideline as we would lose these close matches. And tonight their impact was so significant. They played a big role.”
Tamburini finished with 8 kills and 15 digs. Danica Minnich also had 8 kills, while Ally Mintzer led the Chargers (15-13) with 9 kills.
Erika Foreman played a strong match for Santa Barbara, racking up a match-high 13 kills on .550 hitting and picking up 10 digs. New addition Soliel Hallig provided 11 kills and Chloe Mauceri added 8.
“Erika is playing good volleyball for us,” said Gannon.
The Santa Barbara coach said it was tough coming back after losing two sets 25-23.
“It’s tough when you come close in two sets. As a group, we’re a very strong team, but we’re not a very experienced team. An experienced team can come back from two close loses.”
The Dons made a furious comeback in the second set after being down 24-20. Foreman scored on back-to-back kills and Mauceri served an ace off the tape to pull to within one. The teams rallied after the next serve and Danielle LaGrange of DP earned the winning point for her team on a tip.
Bennett threw several different line-ups at the Dons and his players came through with key contributions.
In third set, Katie Willingham — the fourth middle used by the Chargers in the match — made some clutch plays down the stretch. She blocked an overpass to make it 23-20 and scored on a tip for a 24-22 advantage. A Hallig kill made it 24-23, but the Dons missed a chance to tie the score when a tip shot failed to go over the net.
Bennett put his starters back on the court for the fourth set and they finished off the match.
“For us, it means we have a shot a the playoffs and that was something we really wanted to make happen this year,” Bennett said of the win. “That was huge. We knew we had to beat Santa Barbara tonight and play very well against Buena (next Tuesday) before playing against Laguna Blanca (Oct. 25) for us to even have a shot at the playoffs.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.