Halle Rillie dishes out the assists for the Dos Pueblos girls volleyball team.
On Thursday night, the setter was a big point scorer for the Chargers, and her production made huge difference in a five-set victory over crosstown rival San Marcos in the Channel League opener at Sovine Gym.
In a fitting finish to her night, Rillie tapped the ball over on two for the match-winning point in a 18-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-15, 15-11 victory. The result sent the team and the DP student section into euphoria.
Rillie continually crossed up San Marcos’ defense with her on-two plays. She finished the match with 12 points on dumps.
“I just really wanted to insert myself in the offense, make them block me so I could get one (blocker) up on my middle, or even get one up on the outside,” said Rillie. “The more I dumped them, the more they jumped on me, and they get tired too.”
She made a key dump during a 4-0 run in the fifth set, giving the Chargers a 13-8 advantage.
“If it works, that works,” she said of the plays. “I just keep doing it till they get it, and I do it when we’re in a dip, just to try and get us out of it.”
Dos Pueblos coach Megan O’Carroll said the dump plays are an example of Rillie’s high volleyball IQ.
“Halle is an incredible volleyball player,” said O’Carroll. “I think a lot of times — oh my gosh — she’s a great setter but she’s just an incredible overall volleyball player. Her volleyball knowledge is incredibly high and you can see that when she’s out on the court.
“We really encourage her to score points for us if she sees the opportunity. And, tonight she did. She had a goal. She wanted to get 10 goals and she she got 12, so it’s awesome.
“We’re undersized, obviously. There’s no surprise about that on our team, so we’re trying to find opportunities to score points on offense where we can and Halle is a great option for us.”
Middle Addison Low is a primary option for Rillie. The sophomore led all attackers with 14 kills and added two blocks
“She’s my No. 1 hitter. I love her to death,” said Rillie of Low.
Low said practice has made their combination so good together.
“We’re just so synced up,” she said. “We’re like the same person, she always knows when I’m going to be up and I always trust she’s going to get the ball to me.”
Thursday’s win marked the first time Low was on the winning side against San Marcos. And she was loving it.
“I’m just so pumped. We’ve been working our butts off just to beat them. This is the most rewarding day of my life,” she said.
Dos Pueblos is 4-2 overall and 1-0 in league while San Marcos is 3-4, 0-1.
San Marcos coach Dwayne Hauschild credited the energy of Dos Pueblos as a key to the Chargers winning the match.
“I think that was the biggest difference maker, that really positive energy they came out in, just a grind, a fight and positivity,” he said. “Their enthusiasm and desire was fantastic and ours was at times more cautious. You get that with a sophomore team, and we got so many sophomores.”
Low agreed that the DP’s energy fueled the win.
“If we don’t have the energy on our team, we suck,” she said, bluntly. “I think our team does an amazing job of hyping each other up. Whether we’re losing or winning, we’re always smiling and making sure we’re lifting each other up.”
After the teams split the first two sets, San Marcos’ Charlotte Hastings came up with some big plays down the stretch in the third to give San Marcos the advantage.
Hastings combined with Kaylin Cooney on a block to tie the score at 22 and then served back-to-back aces. She contributed on the 25th point with a dig that was converted into a kill by Cooney.
“We put her in two different positions tonight,” said Hauschild of Hastings. “We had a kid that we weren’t even sure was going to play because she was sick, so we had to mess around with the lineups a little bit. We had to make adjustments and and I thought the girls did pretty good with that, Charlotte specifically. She’s been very flexible for us.”
In the fourth set, DP’s Jayden Jones went on a five-point serving run to break the set open and knot the match at 2-2. She finished the set by smartly tipping a tight ball off the block.
“She was incredible tonight for us,” said O’Carroll of Jones. “She gave us some big sparks in really important moments.”
In the deciding fifth set, three tough Anelle Priebe-Garcia serves, including an ace, allowed the Chargers to take a 10-5 lead. Digs by Katie Sitolini and Sonia Mancuso set up a dump by (who else) Rillie and a spike off the block from Jones for a 14-8 advantage.
San Marcos tried to stay alive, as a kill from Cooney, a block by Hasting and a kill by Elena Thomas cut DP’s lead to 14-11.
Rillie closed out the first Channel League crosstown match of the season with a dump.
O’Carroll is having fun with this DP team.
“These girls love each other. They’re always together, their chemistry is super high,” she said. “We knew coming into this match that was going to be our advantage. We’re undersized, but we need to take advantage of the things that we’re really good at, and we’re really good at being good teammates and supporting each other and getting excited for each other.
“And that really pulled us through tonight.”