Lineup adjustments made a huge difference for the Bishop Diego and Santa Barbara High girls volleyball teams in their runs to their respective CIF-Southern Section division championship matches on Saturday.
Santa Barbara will play for its first CIF title since 2008 when it hosts El Rancho High of Pico Rivera in the Division 6 final at 5 p.m. at J.R. Richards Gym.
Santa Barbara (18-4) is the division’s top seed, and El Rancho (25-7) is unseeded.
Across town, Bishop (29-8) will host a Division 7 title match between the top two seeds in the tournament bracket.
The No. 2 Cardinals take on No. 1 Capistrano Valley Christian (21-8) at the Brick House at 6 p.m.
Bishop Diego’s last finals appearance was in 1983, while the school’s last CIF title came in 1979.
This year’s Bishop Diego team made a key change to the lineup that bolstered its attack. Coach Dillan Bennett had senior Amy Mancinelli take over the setting duties full-time in the Cardinals’ 5-1 offense after junior Siena Urzua got hurt.
He then switched senior Alina Urzua, who had been setting, to a hitting position.
The moves gave Bishop opponents a triple dose of potent Urzua hitting, with a now healthy Siena, Alina and freshman Eliana Urzua, the team’s kill leader.
The changes gave Mancinelli a lot of options.
“I have great hitters on my team,” Mancinelli gushed after the semifinal win.
Bennett is pleased Mancinelli answered the call to run the show.
“She’s solid,” said Bennett. “She makes the right decisions, and that’s most of what it takes to be a setter. Fortunately for her, she’s got three Urzua sisters on the floor now, and a couple of other girls like Clara (McDonald) and Kylie (Zimmerman) that can get in there and hit the ball too. She’s got a lot of options.”
Mancinelli said the team has connected well since the change.
“We knew we had good players, we just had to mend together and connect,” she said. “That’s what we’ve been doing the past few practices and games. We’ve been connecting with each other and getting that chemistry to work together as one.”
First-year Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy also tweaked her 5-1 alignment, and the change paid huge dividends. She started having opposite hitter Gracie Meinzer set when she rotated into the back row and subbed out Annie Knecht.
“We switched up our lineup kind of halfway through the season, and ended up giving her more time on the floor, and she’s really grown a lot both setting and hitting opposite,” said Hempy of Meinzer’s role change after the Dons beat Cate in their CIF opener.
Hempy, who last year was coaching and teaching at Rise Kohyang High School in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles, is excited about how the Dons gelled and got on a roll.
“Going into the season, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” she said. “I think some of the players weren’t either. But we’ve been able to really build on a lot of individual successes and talents to bring it together as a unit.
“The players are really excited and motivated. And, yeah, it’s just been a really exciting run so far.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.