Carpinteria shook off a disappointing first-set loss and prevailed against Santa Clara in a first-round CIF-SS Division 8 girls volleyball playoff match on Thursday night at home.
The scores were 24-26, 25-18, 25-21, 25-11.
The Warriors (16-8) advance to the second-round and will play at Lighthouse Christian in Santa Monica on Saturday.
Carpinteria cleaned up its mistakes after blowing a 24-20 lead in the first set against a scrappy Santa Clara squad (7-11).
The Warriors got solid passing from libero Ashlee Mora, improved back row defense and a strong performance from middle blocker Sawyer Taff. She finished the match with five blocks.
They also got a huge spark off the bench from freshman outside hitter Cora Nimmons. She delivered some impressive hard-angled kills that had the home crowd going crazy.
Nimmons entered the match in the second set and blasted back-to-back kills to give Carpinteria a 14-8 lead. She came off the bench again in the third set and put away consecutive kills for a 19-15 advantage.
“My freshman, who I moved up from JV, stepped up and played really well,” said Carpinteria coach Marc Denitz, who won his first CIF playoff game and first playoff game at home in his 17 years of coaching high school volleyball in the area. “She hits the ball at angles that nobody else does.”
Nimmons finished with eight kills in her playoff debut.
The Warriors were led by Amarisse Camargo with 14 kills, while Liz Alpizar added eight kills.
Denitz said his team’s inexperience showed in the first set.
“This group of girls is so inexperienced. We work on understanding consistency and percentages. The game inside the game of volleyball is passing and serving, and we increased our passing and serving. We didn’t get aced as often in the past and I think that really changed it around. And (Santa Clara) made mistakes; we make a play and they make a mistake, and we make a play and they make two mistakes. That’s where we kept jumping out ahead.
“We don’t have a go-to outside hitter, but the girls have been really working on being scrappy and keeping the ball in play. And it was good enough to win.”
The Saints kept things interesting behind the defense of libero Selina Cortez and the attacks of Jayda Pettit.
In the critical third set, the Warriors were whistled for a net violation, pulling Santa Clara within one at 21-20.
The Saints committed an hitting error on the next play and Carpinteria scored another point when an Alpizar dig went over the net and Santa Clara couldn’t make a play on it.
Camila Martinez served an ace to make it 24-20 before Santa Clara sided out. Carmargo scored the winning point on a tip.
The Warriors carried the momentum into the fourth set and stormed out to a big lead. A couple of blocks by Taff (coach Denitz’s granddaughter) helped push the advantage to 17-4.
Carpinteria never let up and finished the playoff match on an ace by Alpizar.
