Dos Pueblos and San Marcos opened Channel League girls volleyball play with a five-set thriller, and the host Chargers beat their crosstown rivals for the first time since 2014 on Tuesday night.
DP’s middle attackers Ally Mintzer and Danielle LaGrange combined for 30 kills, with Mintzer putting away the final two points in a 25-23, 19-25, 23-25, 25-21, 15-8 victory at Sovine Gym.
LaGrange, a 6-3 freshman, and Mintzer, a 6-1 sophomore, were too much to handle for the Royals. The young Chargers gained confidence as the match wore on, and setters Jackie Holmes, Grace Crozier and Mikayla Butzke utilized them to their advantage.
“Maybe by the second or third game,” Mintzer said of when she broke out and played without nerves. “At first I was nervous because of the crowd, but then I got comfortable and started doing things.”
LaGrange said she got the fever after her first kill, a crushed ball that tied the score at 15-all in the first set.
“That first hit I knew this is going to big game for me,” she said. “It’s usually within the first two points that I know how I’m going to do.”
DP coach Dillan Bennett said his young middles “are very dynamic and can move pretty well, especially for being so young.”
Mintzer praised the setters. “They’re awesome, Jackie, Mikayla and Grace are the best,” she said.
Holmes said she realized by the third set that the middles were having their way at the net.
“I saw that was the main spot that really worked, so I needed to execute it more to get points and get ahead,” she said. “It was the third game I said I need to set the middle more.”
Butzke followed suit in the fourth and fifth sets.
Danica Minnich was a workhorse for DP, putting away 16 kills and recording a whopping 37 digs. Lauren Buie had 10 kills and 29 digs.
“Holy-moly, tonight she hit probably the best of her career,” Bennett said of Minnich, a former middle attacker. “She did a great job keeping sets that weren’t in her window in the court and on the right person.”
San Marcos got a strong match from outside hitter Jenna MacFarlane. She led all hitters with 20 kills and had 12 digs. Leila Parker contributed 9 kills on the outside and Ady Colburn posted 8 kills and 16 digs. Libero Delaney Warner was all over the court for the Royals and picked up 17 digs.
The match feature several long rallies.
San Marcos co-coach Tina Brown was happy with her team’s defense, led by Werner, and the aggressive play of MacFarlane at the net and in the back row. The difference, she said, “was the middle, our middles versus their middles. I just don’t think our middles stepped up as they should of tonight against two very tall girls. We knew what (the Chargers) were going to bring against us. They weren’t bombing balls by any means. We just didn’t make the necessary adjustments.”
The Royals rallied from a 12-8 deficit in the fourth set and pulled to within one, 15-13. But Dos Pueblos responded with a big hit in the middle by LaGrange and scored the next two points on San Marcos mistakes. Butzke then served an ace for a 20-15 advantage.
San Marcos cut it to 23-21 before Dos Pueblos scored the final two points on a Buie tip and a Royals hitting error after a tough serve by Holmes.
In the 15-point fifth set, the Chargers roared out to a 7-3 lead behind two kills from Mintzer, a stuff by LaGrange and a couple of kills from Minnich. They outscored San Marcos 5-1 down the stretch, with Mintzer scoring the final two points off assists from Holmes.
“As far as experience goes, San Marcos crushed us and they showed us that in the first three games,” Bennett said. “That’s a very experienced team and our young girls have never seen this atmosphere and have never played in a game of this magnitude. I was so proud to see our freshmen and sophomores playing up with upper classmen and really shining. It was great.”
The last time Dos Pueblos beat San Marcos was in October of 2014 in a five-set match.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.