Eliana Urzua and her Bishop Diego girls volleyball teammates made it clear Friday that they’re in the Santa Barbara High Tournament of Champions to win it.
Urzua’s emphatic solo block to end the second set was one of many big plays made by the Cardinals in an impressive 25-15, 25-20, 25-14 sweep against CIF Central Coast Section power Los Gatos on Friday in a second-round match at Santa Barbara High’s JR Richards Gym.
The win sends undefeated Bishop (17-0) to a 9:45 a.m. Saturday quarterfinal match against Newbury Park, a team it beat in three sets last month.
San Marcos also played lights out in its tournament opener, displaying great balance in taking down Corona del Mar, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-19. The Royals (20-3) advance to an 8 a.m. quarterfinal match against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks at JR. Richards Gym
Host Santa Barbara made it to the quarterfinals of the 18-team tournament after beating Valencia in four sets (23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-20). The Dons, who earlier lost to Yorba Linda in four sets, play Clovis at 9:45 a.m.
Dos Pueblos just missed making it a local sweep into the quarterfinals, as the Chargers fell in five sets to Clovis in a second-round match, 19-25, 25-13, 23-25, 25-23, 15-11. Earlier in the day, DP swept Marin Academy, 25-16, 25-19, 25-14.
Tournament top seed St. Francis of Mountain View swept Ventura in its lone match on Friday to make the quarterfinals. The Lancers will play Yorba Linda, which advanced by beating Clovis East.
Bishop Diego played well in all phases of the game in derailing the fast attack of Los Gatos.
“That’s probably the best all-around volleyball game we’ve played in the five years I’ve been here,” said a proud Bishop Diego coach Dillan Bennett, who guided the Cardinals to a CIF-SS title in 2021. “They just keep surprising me. I couldn’t tell you that I would expect a team like ours to back and hit 19 aces against a team as quality as Los Gatos.
“I couldn’t tell you that we were going to block eight balls as a team against that team, but here we are. They keep showing up and they keep raising the bar for us.”
The senior combo of Eliana Urzua and Nicole Schuetz was too much for Los Gatos to handle. They combined for 23 kills, four blocks and nine service aces.
Urzua, a UCLA commit, blasted 13 kills and had three blocks. The most impressive was a smothering solo effort on the left side to end the second set. She got both hands on the ball and steered straight to the floor.
“That was one of the best blocks I’ve seen in a long time,” said Bennett. “I usually try to stay pretty calm and collected, but I don’t think I’ve celebrated that much in quite a long time, maybe since I played; that was an unbelievable Division-1-NCAA-level, one-on-one block against one of their best.
“She’s a Big 10 player for a reason. We’re lucky to have her.”
Karina Urzua, Eliana’s freshman sister and the team setter, was wowed by the block like everyone else watching the match.
“Oh my god, it’s amazing, it’s just so crazy. Just seeing her, and she’s my sister, it’s so cool,” said Karina, who did a good job setting up her hitters in one-on-one situations and picking up blocked balls to keep plays alive.
“We pushed through all the way,” said Karina. “We came in with a mindset: ‘Don’t be scared; we got this, we’re just as good as them.’’’
Schuetz, returning to the gym she played in for three years before transferring to Bishop, was a force at the net (10 kills and a block) and at the service line, where she delivered eight aces. She had an eight-point service run in the third game to give the Cardinals an 18-7 lead.
San Marcos Tops Corona Del Mar
The Royals displayed great balance in their attack in beating a tough Corona del Mar team.
Grace Stone and Charlotte Hastings each delivered nine kills, Elena Thomas put away eight, middle Cora Loomer had seven kills and Josie Gamberdella produced five kills in addition to running a potent, multifaceted 6-2 offense with Lila Westmacott.
Jordan Schmoller and Loomer were a force at middle blocker, combining for 13 blocks, led by Schmoller’s seven.
Hastings added 15 digs and four aces to her stat line, and backup liberos Avery Leck and Isla McClintock did a nice job filling in for Alina Stapf who suffered a burst appendix and was rushed to the hospital early Friday morning, according to coach Dwayne Hauschild.
“(The tournament) is an opportunity, everybody doing their best to get some reps and produce when they get them, and that’s kind of cool when they do,” said Hauschild of the players coming off the bench. “We have some depth and we go, ‘Hey, you give it shot.’ And they’ve been doing OK with that.”
Gamberdella said the starters have full confidence in the players who come off the bench.
“Honestly, all of our backups are really good. They just did their jobs and got the job done.”
Corona del Mar outside hitter Cassandra Doll got the Sea Queens rolling in the second set and they opened up a 15-6 lead.
But San Marcos never panicked and slowly worked its way back. Hastings and Schmoller served aces and Loomer blocked a couple of attacks to spark the comeback. The left-handed Stone crushed a back-two set from Gamberdella to provide a huge momentum boost.
“I remember setting it and then being like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ And then Gracie just came in and hit the poop out of the ball,” said Gamberdella of the play. “Yeah, she just got it done for me, so that was really good.”
Gamberdella then fed Loomer for a kill in the middle and Stone followed with a block for a 24-21 advantage. Hastings completed the comeback with a cross-court kill.
“In those cases, I just like to think of the game as like a point at a time,” said the senior Gamberdella. “You can be down by however many (points), but as long as you just chip away one point at a time, not get overwhelmed, bite off little bites at a time, you can eventually get back up and then you’re in the game again.”
The Royals battled back from another deficit in the third game, but Doll provided a spark for the Sea Queens and they held on to force a fourth set.
Loomer and Stone got San Marcos going in the fourth set. Stone broke a 16-16 tie with an off-speed shot, and the Royals scored four more points to pull away.
“I like what it shows in our team,” said Hauschild of erasing deficits. “I told the girls it’ll help us in CIF (playoff matches) and the rest of the league, being able to come back from a deficit and show that you have some heart.”
The tournament semifinals are at 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m., and the championship is at 4:45 p.m.
