Everything seemed to be going San Marcos’ way during Thursday’s girls volleyball match against undefeated Channel League leader Ventura.
The Royals were up 2-0 in sets, leading 14-10 in the third set and making plays all over the court.
But there’s a reason why the Cougars haven’t lost a league match and only three matches overall this season, and are ranked No. 1 in CIF-SS Division 5. Their seniors come up clutch in key moments.
That’s what happened at the Thunderhut, as Ventura made a remarkable comeback and spoiled San Marcos’ upset bid, 20-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-13.
The victory clinched a tie for the league championship. Ventura is 11-0 (17-3 overall), three matches ahead of second-place Santa Barbara and four up on third-place Dos Pueblos with three matches remaining.
San Marcos fell to 5-6 (15-12 overall) and is one match behind fourth-place Oxnard. The top four teams earn automatic CIF-SS playoff spots.
Down 14-10 in the third set, Ventura got big plays from middles Daphne Raymond and Yvette Mayorga, outside hitter Sophia Sletten and setter Kate Duffey to pull ahead and give the Cougars new life. All four players are seniors.
“We have a lot of seniors on the team and I think they showed their leadership and experience in order to come back from being down 2-0,” said coach Bryan Ornelas. “They won’t quit and they know they can win this game. They just focus on the little things and they get the job done.”
San Marcos coach Dwayne Hauschild lamented “that it’s always the little things. We talk about it all the time, just being focused, consistent and whatever.
“That’s a super consistent team,” he added. “They’re always really reliable, and towards the end you can definitely see that experience level they brought to the table. They were more composed in the tight moments, but we battled every minute of it. We just had a couple of bad breaks, a couple of sloppy digs or a sloppy pass, and all of a sudden you’re down one or down two.
“I’m really happy with all of our performances… just one or two sloppy plays.”
In the fourth set, Ventura escaped deficits of 19-15 and 23-21 to win. Duffey, a UCLA commit, fed a one-handed set to Raymond for a kill to make it 23-22. Junior Alyssa Garo followed with an ace to knot the score.
San Marcos outside hitter Elena Thomas nearly gave her team the lead by blocking an on-two attack by Duffey. But the Cougars were able to keep the ball alive and Raymond finished the rally for a 24-23 lead. Ventura scored the set point on a Royals hitting error.
The Cougars jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the deciding fifth set, but San Marcos came roaring back behind the hitting of Cora Loomer in the middle, Thomas and Kaylin Cooney on the outside, clutch plays by setter Josie Gamberdella and tough serving from Alina Stapf.
The sophomore Stapf served back-to-back aces to give San Marcos a 13-12 lead.
“Alina had a really good night,” said Haushchild. “From the service line, she looked really confident and got us back in that game. And then her defense was aggressive, she was picking up balls in transition. Her confidence level and her job has improved a lot.”
Ventura regrouped after Stapf’s serving run as Sletten sided out and sophomore Gigi Scaglia followed with a roll shot for a 14-13 Cougars’ advantage.
Ventura scored the match-winning point off a bad pass on senior Anneliese Maxwell’s deep serve.
“We just couldn’t get the one or two breaks we needed,” said Hauschild.
Thomas led the San Marcos attack with 19 kills and had several digs, Cooney put down 12 kills and Loomer added nine. Gamberdella did a nice job spreading the ball around and finished with 49 assists.
Sletten and Raymond recorded 15 and 13 kills, respectively, to lead Ventura. Duffey had nine kills, including a straight-down smack early in the fifth set, to go with 37 assists.
San Marcos had the Cougars on their heels in the first set. A kill by Gamberdella started a five-point run for an 11-7 lead. The Royals extended their advantage to 21-13 and scored the winning point on a bump kill from Katie Kracke.
The hitting of Thomas, Cooney and Loomer and the blocking of Gracie Stone sparked the Royals to a 20-13 lead in the second set. They moved to 24-18 before Ventura stepped up its game and made a furious comeback.
After a pair of San Marcos hitting errors, Duffey blocked for a point and fed Raymond on a pair of pipe sets to make it 24-23. The Cougars, however, served the next ball wide to end the set.
But Ventura shook off the mistake and pulled through at the end.
“I love the drama,” cracked Ornelas, who watched his team win a five-set match last Thursday at Dos Pueblos, lose a five-setter against Santa Barbara High in the fifth-place match of the Tournament of Champions on Saturday and beat the Dons in five two Thursdays ago.
“They know they need to start out right,” he said of team’s slow start. “The motor is starting a little slow and we picked it up. Hopefully, this is a learning lesson for them to get that motor is started early, so that way in playoffs we don’t have to deal with a late comeback again.”
The Royals are fighting to make the playoffs.
“Disappointed because we wanted to win four out of four of our remaining games,” said Hauschild. “It’s a bummer. We took it to them.
“At the TOC, we beat them in four, so I knew we came in confident and it showed in the first couple games. But they’re not a team that’s going to roll over by any means.”