Bishop Diego volleyball standout Karina Urzua racked up another double-double, but the Cardinals struggled containing a potent St. Bonaventure attack and suffered a three-set sweep in a Tri-Valley League match at the Brick House on Tuesday. The scores were 25-21, 25-22, 25-19.
The loss kept Bishop from moving into second place in the league standings. The Cardinals are 7-4 and tied with Laguna Blanca for third with one match remaining. St. Bonaventure is 9-3.
Urzua put away 22 kills and recorded 18 digs and added two blocks and a service ace to carry the load for Bishop. The junior started in the program as a setter but has been called upon by coach Dillan Bennett to employ her full gamut volleyball skills this season for the seven-player squad.
“That’s what happens when you’re a great athlete — you can be multi-faceted and you can do a lot of different things,” Bennett said of Karina, the fourth Urzua sister he’s coached in his eight-year tenure as girls coach. “She’s grown up playing the entire game, and while she’s a setter by trade, she’s also got a great arm swing. She’s got a couple of sisters that have great arms swings too. She’s done this for us all year. She averages 18 kills a game and she continues to get better at this role she’s playing for us. We’re grateful that she’s stepping up and doing that.”
Her strong overall play wasn’t enough to counteract St. Bonaventure’s taller attackers across the net. Left-side hitter Zoe Benton paced the Seraphs’ attack with 15 kills, opposite Ann Gutierrez collected seven kills and middle Anna O’Neil put down seven.
Bishop took a set off St. Bonaventure (18-5 overall) in their first meeting in Ventura.
“Anytime you play the next round of league, everybody’s got a little better idea of what they can do against you,” said Bennett. “And, unless I come up with a game plan for how to make people taller and better blockers within the next two weeks, we’re just going to have to deal with what we’ve got. Right now we’ve got issues with blocking the ball, but we continue to play really strong defense. So I hope we can clean that up a little bit in the next two weeks before playoffs.”
The Cardinals (14-7) close the regular season on Thursday at Cate.
