The San Marcos girls volleyball team has caught fire as the regular season enters its stretch run.
Powered by the middle attacks of Cora Loomer and big swings from outside hitter Elena Thomas, the Royals took down rival Santa Barbara High in four sets at a steamy Thunderhut on Tuesday night. The scores were 25-21, 25-14, 19-25, 25-22.
It was huge win for San Marcos, which is fighting to finish in the top four in the Channel League to gain an automatic CIF-SS playoff spot. The Royals are now 5-5 in league (15-11 overall), one match behind Oxnard and Dos Pueblos who both lost Tuesday night to fall to 6-4.
Santa Barbara is alone in second place at 7-3.
Thomas led all hitters with 15 kills and Loomer put away an impressive 12 on 15 swings with only two errors.
“That was a coming out for her,” said San Marcos coach Dwayne Hauschild of his middle attacker. “She’s a sophomore and she had Tommy John surgery at the beginning of last season. She tore her UCL and was unable to do anything for an entire year. She had her arm in a sling.
“She finally got cleared to play maybe three weeks ago, and wow, what a night for her, 12 of 15 and she apparently had 11 blocks.”
Loomer came up with big plays in the fourth set, allowing San Marcos to take a three-point lead, which the Royals expanded to seven (22-15).
Santa Barbara made a late run and pulled to within two (24-22). But the Dons were whistled for a violation at the net and Kaylin Cooney found open court for the match-winning point to set off a Royals’ celebration.
It was their first crosstown win of the season after losing the first meeting with Santa Barbara and both matches against Dos Pueblos.
In those matches, San Marcos often hurt itself with unforced errors. The Royals cleaned things up on Tuesday and played a sound match.
“I think the team has definitely grown up this season,” said Hauschild. “The thing I was happiest about was our composure. We didn’t get rattled in games one and two at all, started slow in three, and even as (Santa Barbara) started to make their effort in game four, everybody carried on. It was really good.”
Hauschild is pleased how his team has matured. He noted they couldn’t run a full practice on Monday because the gym lights were shut off and couldn’t be turned on. Yet, they didn’t allow that to effect their play on Tuesday.
“We played in here with the doors open on both ends of the court. We couldn’t do service, we couldn’t do hitting at the front of the net. We just had to play on the floor so nobody got hurt,” he said. “And for (the players) to not let that give them an excuse to play poorly, or to come in here and go, ‘Well, we didn’t even get a full practice yesterday,’ makes me really happy. Again, it comes down to maturity, and they’ve matured a lot.”
The Royals took charge in the first set with a four-point run to take an 8-4 lead. Setter Josie Gamberdella fed Gracie Stone for a kill, Cooney rejected a Santa Barbara attack and Charlotte Hastings served an ace in the run.
The Royals went ahead 17-12 before Santa Barbara picked up its play. Serena Byrd scored on back-to-back kills to narrow the deficit to 23-21. But the Dons committed a serving error coming out of a timeout and Thomas finished the set with sharp-angled kill from the left side.
San Marcos outscored the Dons 6-1 to take an 18-12 lead in the second set and finished the set with a 7-0 run.
A kill by Meister followed by a solo block from Nicole Schuetz and a block by Keenan Engebretsen sparked a 7-0 Santa Barbara run for 17-10 lead in the third set.
San Marcos kept battling but eventually fell, 25-19.
“We started out a little quiet and a little slow,” said Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy. “I really was happy we were able to turn it around — the third and fourth sets looked so much better. It’s just a bummer it comes down to a few points at the end.”
She added that San Marcos was at full strength in the second meeting, which made a big difference.
“They had some people who were out who came back, like their middle. She was a really strong hitter that they were missing. One of their outsides (Thomas) was also out the last time we played them, and those hitters were difference makers for them tonight.”
The Dons had a balanced attack, with Schuetz, Emmy Werner and Byrd each notching nine kills, and Meister and Engebretson adding six apiece. Libero Tessa de Albergaria picked up 15 digs.
Santa Barbara is back home Thursday against Pacifica while San Marcos hosts first-place Ventura. The Royals beat the Cougars in the semifinals last weekend at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions.