Santa Barbara High girls volleyball fell in straight sets to Ontario Christian in the CIF-SS Div. 5 Semifinals on Saturday in Ontario.
The Dons fell behind early and struggled to recover in the sweeping loss, 18-25, 15-25, 18-25.
“Unfortunately, we came out a little flat tonight, making a few too many unforced errors,” Santa Barbara High head coach Kristin Hempy said. “Our servers and hitters battled through it but Ontario Christian was very consistent.”
The Dons were led offensively by Kira Elliott’s 13 kills, while Lola Heckman hammered down nine and Blake Saunders ended the night with seven.
Jules Horton facilitated the offense throughout the night to the tune of 25 assists.
“Kira Elliott did a great job working hard to diversify her hits and make an impact on offense,” Hempy said. “We changed momentum in the third set and held the lead for a while, before a few more errors caused the game to get away from us.”
The Dons, now 19-15 on the season, will await the CIF State Tournament bracket next week.
“Though this isn’t the result we wanted, overall I’m proud of our girls for a great D5 run,” Hempy said. “With so much youth on our team, experiencing a loss like this can teach us lessons that will help us in the state playoffs and next year’s season.”