The Santa Barbara High girls volleyball team channeled a lot of magic in its reverse sweep win during the first round of the CIF-SS Div. 5 playoffs Wednesday night.
The Dons conjured up an even stronger spell Saturday afternoon at JR Richards Gymnasium, as junior outside hitter Blake Saunders and sophomore setter Jules Horton helped their team outlast Sacred Heart in four sets.
The set scores consisted of 26-24, 19-25, 25-20, 25-23 in the second round of the Div. 5 playoffs.
With the win, Santa Barbara will host Gahr High and Pacifica Christian on Wednesday, October 29, at 6 p.m.
“Sacred Heart has a great, solid team. We knew they would be solid, we knew they were going to have scrappy defense, which means long rallies, and so our theme was tightening up on our own defense and winning those long rallies,” Santa Barbara High head coach Kristin Hempy said.
Saunders knocked down a team-high 16 kills and Horton racked up 44 assists in the victory.
It was a bit of a slow start for the Dons on Saturday. The Comets’ defense was forcing a slew of hitting errors, and their block also won them a few points. Down 15-20 in the first set, Hempy called a timeout.
“I just wanted to encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing, trust their teammates, trust the plays we are calling, and it will all fall into place,” Hempy said.
It worked, as Saunders got a kill, then an ace, to go along with a kill from sophomore Kira Elliott to suddenly cut the deficit to just two. The Dons were up against it, however, falling behind 21- 24.
Santa Barbara’s defense came up strong, as they forced four hitting errors on long rallies and would eventually take the set 26-24.
“Volleyball is such a momentum game. So we can come back from a deficit, as we did the other night, but it’s so much nicer to have the advantage of being up 1-0,” Hempy said. “It was really helpful for us tonight.”
The second set was dominated by visiting Sacred Heart; however, as sophomore outside hitter Abigail Ochoa went off for six of the Comets’ 17 kills during the set. Ochoa finished the day with eight kills.
The Comets’ other key hitters during the contest, Mya Del Cid and Emely Constanza, finished with 13 and 19 kills, respectively.
The third set was back and forth throughout, with the teams tying up the score at five, 10 and 15. But from there, the Dons took over, as Horton was setting up her teammates in great spots, getting kills from five different Dons, including one herself, over the course of the set.
Horton also had a couple of key blocks during the contest.
“Jules is just great. She’s just like a workhorse. She is super athletic, super strong, and she’s a stud water polo player, so we are just really happy that we get to steal her for three months out of the year,” Hempy said about her star setter, who rushed out of the gym to go to a water polo tournament after the match.
“She has a really smart court sense and she can get everyone going really well.”
Saunders had four of her kills in the back half of the third set, as after being tied at 15, the Dons led 23-20. Back-to-back kills from junior Lola Heckman would finish the set for the Dons. Heckman finished the contest with 13 kills.
Though Santa Barbara led throughout the fourth set, it did not come without some drama. Leading 24-20, three errors suddenly put Sacred Heart back into the contest at 24-23. A Saunders kill, off a perfect set from Horton, was the final spell needed to send the Dons to the quarterfinals.
“We just needed one to put it away and I can feel like we were gonna close it. We weren’t gonna go to five again, but it does get a little nerve-racking, you get a little palpitations,” Hempy said with a laugh.
“But I told them to keep going back to Blake because I think she hit one right out, barely by inches and I’m like, she’s fired up, you could tell she wanted it, so just give it to her again, she’ll do the work and she did.”