The advantages favored San Marcos going into Wednesday night’s crosstown girls volleyball match against Santa Barbara High.
The Royals were the taller and more experienced team, and had a better season record. But in this rivalry, it doesn’t matter.
Santa Barbara fought like crazy and led 2-1 in sets before San Marcos stepped up and escaped with a five-set win at a raucous J.R. Richards Gym. The scores were 25-27, 25-14, 20-25, 25-17, 15-6.
San Marcos improves to 12-2 on the season and 5-0 in Channel League while Santa Barbara falls to 5-7, 3-2.
San Marcos coach Erica Downing has been a part of many of these crosstown battles as a player and a coach.
“You come to these rivalry games and you never know what to expect, right? It’s always a great atmosphere. It’s always hard to play in here, it’s always loud, it’s the (low) ceiling, you know, all those things,” she said.
She said her Royals came out flat “and we really had to change up some things to fight. I mean (Santa Barbara) played really well. I had no idea that they would be super scrappy like that. I know they really like their outside hitters, which was fine, we were prepared for that part. But the scrappiness, that was really impressive. They got a lot of balls back.”
The Dons were flying all over the court to pick up big hits and tips. Libero Paylin Marcillac paced the defensive effort with 16 digs, setter Jules Horton and outside hitter Blake Saunders each had seven and Grace Costner added six.
“It stings a little bit,” said Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy of playing so well and coming up short. “You want to win that one. But I told the girls, ‘Man, that was the best we’ve played.’ They really played an amazing match. They battled, they wanted it. We did a lot of different adjusting, we did a lot of preparation for this one. Anytime there’s a big rivalry, there’s going to be a lot of energy, that’s going to be a given. I’m just proud of them for raising the volleyball level, the technical level as well.”
A big dig from Costner provided an early sparky as the Dons took a 5-1 lead. Kills from Kira Elliott and Saunders helped build the advantage to 13-5 before San Marcos started to pick up its play.
The Royals evened the score at 22-22 and got to set point (24-23). Santa Barbara equalized on a tip by Horton and scored again on a San Marcos hitting error. The teams traded points before Saunders scored the set-winning point with a tough serve.
The Dons rode the momentum to an early lead in the second set. San Marcos came roaring back behind a six-point service run from Lila Westmacott to go up 12-9. Libero Isla McClintock came up with some clutch digs, and the Royals never trailed again in the set.
Santa Barbara shook off the loss and bounced back in the third set. Jacqueline Durling and Horton combined on a block and Saunders served a couple of aces, helping the Dons take a 14-10 lead.
San Marcos got as close as 18-16, but Santa Barbara responded with four straight points, two on kills from Lola Heckman, one from Durling and an alignment error by the Royals.
San Marcos regrouped in the fourth set. The Royals opened up a 16-12 lead as Grace Stone, Reese Paskin found the floor against Santa Barbara’s scrappy defense and middle Sam Fallon scored on a solo block. The Dons stayed within striking distance before a Charlotte Hastings kill and back-to-back kills from middle Jordan Schmoller put San Marcos up by seven points (23-16).
Santa Barbara scored the first two points of the fifth set, but San Marcos responded with five straight points — a ripping hit from Hastings, a combination block from Stone and Fallon, a solo block by Fallon and solo from Stone — and never trailed again.
“They put up a good fight,” said Fallon of the Dons. “I think we just came out and our hits were great and our blocks were great in the end, and overall we had more energy. I think that’s what got us the win.”
Downing said winning in five sets was good confidence boost for her team. She noted that the Royals suffered a 15-2 fifth-game loss at Oaks Christian earlier in the season.
“Our record in game 5 to 15 has not been very good, so we really tried. We talked about it going into game 5 that we have to be completely locked in, and that was kind of like their word of the day.
“We rely a lot on our serving and blocking, and our blocking finally came in in the last 3-4 games. And our serving really saves us.”
Hastings, who served an ace down the stretch, led a balanced San Marcos attack with 19 kills, Stone had big night with 14 kills and six blocks, Cora Loomer put away 11 kills, Fallon had nine and Paskin added seven.
Elliott put away 13 kills to lead Santa Barbara, Heckman finished with 12 kills and two blocks, Saunders had a stat line of eight kills, seven digs and three aces and Durling had three blocks.