Kristine Fimlaid pounded 10 kills with a .625 hitting percentage on Tuesday night, leading San Marcos High to a 25-15, 25-19, 26-24 sweep of Louisville in a CIF Division 2 girls volleyball opener at The Thunderhut.
Senior Sierra Palladino added seven kills and sophomore Ellie Gamberdella had six kills and 16 assists. Fimlaid, a 6-1 junior middle blocker, didn’t have an error in 16 swings.
“We played really well tonight,” said Gamberdella. “We came together as a team and had a lot of good energy. We executed well and overall, we had a lot of fun.
“It’s really exciting to win a CIF match. We have a lot of seniors and we want to see them keep playing. We know every match could be our last game.”
San Marcos was playing without star hitter Jenna MacFarlane, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Santa Barbara High’s Tournament of Champions on Oct. 20.
“Jenna is someone we could always go to,” Gamberdella noted. “All of our other hitters stepped up and we could set anyone without any worries.”
Louisville finishes with a 15-16 record.
The hometown Royals jumped out to leads of 9-4, 13-6 and 18-10 in the first set. The margin grew to 24-12 on an ace by Palladino, a wide spike by Louisville and a tool off the block by Fimlaid. Jayne Wood capped the 25-15 triumph with a kill.
Trailing 7-6 in the second set, San Marcos went on a 7-0 run. A kill and block by Kendall Williams, followed by a tip kill from Fimlaid on an overpass gave the Royals a 13-7 advantage. San Marcos led 17-11 before Louisville rallied to within two (19-17) on a kill by Cami Baril.
Palladino tooled a kill off the block to ignite a game-ending 6-2 burst.
Sophomore libero Grace Mathews led San Marcos with 16 digs. Williams dug 10 balls and Palladino had eight. Taylor Hantgin dished out 14 assists.
“We had really good energy and a pretty good defensive plan because we knew they’d be pretty heavy from the outside,” said San Marcos coach Tina Brown. “So we switched up our defense and played a little rotation defense. The kids responded really well to that.
“Kristine did a great job in the middle and Molly Kirkbride helped out off the bench.”
San Marcos built leads of 8-2, 11-6 and 19-14 in the third set. Louisville answered with a 6-1 run and tied it at 20 on a kill by Gianna Lambert. San Marcos scored four in a row, capped by a kill from Williams and a Louisville hit in the net to get to match point at 24-20.
Louisville scored four straight to re-tie it at 24. The visitors hit one in the net from the back row and Brynn Sofro ended it with a kill off the block.
“We relaxed a little bit in the third set and stepped off the pedal,” said Gamberdella. “Once it got tighter, we did a good job of keeping up our energy and going for everything.”
San Marcos will travel to Placentia (near Fullerton) to take on No. 3 seed El Dorado (24-7) on Thursday night.