Santa Barbara High girls volleyball earned a second-place finish in the Clovis North Hard Driven Tournament in Clovis over the weekend.
“This was a highly competitive, 16-team tournament consisting of strong Central Coast and Central Valley teams, and I’m so proud of us for our level of play and composure over the weekend, and for taking home some hardware,” Santa Barbara High head coach Kristin Hempy said.
The Dons went 2-1 in pool play to take second place in the pool with two-set victories over Lodi (28-26, 2513) and Stockdale (25-22, 25-22) and a three-set loss to Clovis West (25-23, 20-25, 5-25).
Blake Saunders had 30 kills in pool play, while Jacqueline Durling tallied 13 kills, Lola Heckman added 10 kills and Kira Elliott totaled 14 kills.
Saturday began with a 25-14, 20-25, 15-11 victory over San Joaquin Memorial to advance to the Gold playoff bracket. The Dons stayed hot with a three-set win over Sanger, 20-25, 25-16, 15-13, to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
Santa Barbara High and Clovis East clashed in the semifinals, and the matchup came down to the wire with SB coming out on top 25-15, 20-25, 16-14. Durling came up with a stuff block to secure the win in the final set.
The Dons and Clovis West met for a rematch in the championship game, and the Dons eventually came up short in their fourth three-set match of the day, 16-25, 25-22, 5-15.
“This was a lot of volleyball in about 26 hours, and I’m incredibly proud of the girls for giving it their all, playing unified and confident, and a great finish in a competitive, fun tournament,” Hempy said.
Saunders stayed hot on Saturday with 56 kills to bring her tournament total to 86. Elliott, Heckman and Durling had strong offensive performances on Saturday as well with 23, 19 and 11 kills, respectively.
Meanwhile, Jules Horton and Eloise Becker split the setting duties and combined for 119 assists on Saturday.
The Dons (16-8, 3-0 Channel League) will be on the road against Oxnard on Tuesday.
