The San Marcos No. 1 duo of Cora Loomer and Evyn Miller captured the Channel League Girls Beach Volleyball Pairs Tournament title on Thursday at East Beach.
The UCLA-bound Loomer and Miller, a San Jose State signee, beat out their teammates Paige Hoadley and Charlotte Hastings with a 28-15 win in the championship matchup to come out on top of the 24-team tournament.
“Loomer and Miller continue to play a very high level of volleyball, which was really fun to watch,” San Marcos head coach Tim Loomer said. “Kudos to all of the teams in the Channel League who competed today. It was a fun day of volleyball at East Beach.”
San Marcos
After finishing atop the league in the regular season, the Royals entered four teams into the tournament: Loomer/Miller as the ones, Isla McClintock/Lila Westmacott as the twos, Hoadley/Hastings as the threes and Jeannie Johnson/Kelsie Rowe as the fours.
All four of the San Marcos pairings took first place in their respective pools to begin the day, including Hoadley/Hastings earning an upset 28-25 win over the Ventura No. 1 pairing.
After Westmacott/McClintock and Johnson/Rowe each won their first-round matchups, the quarterfinals featured a pair of matchups that pitted Royals against each other.
Loomer/Miller took down Johnson/Rowe by a score of 28-14, while Hoadley/Hastings came out on top against Westmacott/McClintock, 28-23.
That set up a semifinal matchup between Loomer/Miller and the top Ventura pairing in which Loomer/Miller handled business with a 28-15 win. Meanwhile, Hoadley/Hastings came from behind to Santa Barbara High’s No. 1 duo of Lola Heckman/Kira Elliott, 28-26.
Loomer/Miller then capped off their championship run with the 28-15 win over Hoadley/Hastings. San Marcos’ top pairing did not lose a Channel League match all season.
“While all of the San Marcos pairs played really well today, Hoadley and Hastings were nothing short of exceptional,” Tim Loomer said. “They beat the ones pairs from both Ventura High School and Santa Barbara High School on the way to the finals, both of which are very strong teams. It was really fun to watch them compete.
“The other San Marcos pairs, Westmacott/McClintock and Johnson/Rowe, all played well throughout the day. It was a great day to be a Royal.”
Santa Barbara High
The Dons were led by their top pairing Heckman/Elliott, who went 4-2 on the day to place fourth overall and miss qualifying for the playoffs by one spot.
Heckman/Elliot began by going 3-0 in pool play with wins of 28-19, 28-10 and 28-10. After receiving a first-round bye in the playoffs, they took down the Santa Barbara High No. 2 duo of Paylin Marcillac/Blake Saunders, 28-19, to advance to the semifinals.
However, the Dons top duo then dropped its matchup with Hoadley/Hastings and fell to the Ventura High ones in the third-place match, 28-25.
“Lola and Kira overall played well today, communicating effectively and just missed qualifying by a few points. I’m very proud of their strong season for us as our ones,” Santa Barbara High head coach Kristin Hempy said.
Marcillac/Saunders went 2-1 in pool play with a pair of 28-16 victories and a 29-27 loss. From there, they took down the No. 3 duo from Ventura, 28-20, and then fell to Heckman and Elliot
“Both Blake and Pay had great offense today, strong serving, and excellent communication and energy. It was a good successful run for them overall,” Hempy said.
Meanwhile, the Dons No. 3 pairing of Grace Costner/Stella Peus and the No. 4 duo of Phoebe Peterson/Talia Yoshimi each went 1-2.