The fight and the energy that Santa Barbara High School’s girls volleyball team brought to Tuesday’s crosstown rivalry match with San Marcos were the big difference-makers in a four-set victory for the Dons at a rockin’ J.R. Richards Gym.
Santa Barbara won most of the scramble plays and served tough to defeat the Royals 25-18, 16-25, 25-23, 25-19 in the Channel League match. The result left both teams at 1-1 in league.
“Honestly, I think we all just came into this game with so much more fight and just energy,” hitter/setter Gracie Meinzer said. “Our middles were so on and everyone was focused, and it really came together in the end. We knew we had the skill. It was just the mindset. We really locked in in that last game.”
The Dons went on a four-point run, highlighted by a Serena Byrd kill from an Augustine Wooten back set, to go up 5-2. San Marcos sided out before Shae Delany scored on a deep shot to ignite a 5-0 run for a 10-3 advantage.
San Marcos battled back and cut the deficit to 22-17 after a block by middle Eloise McGibben.
The teams traded sideouts before Delany terminated a rally with a kill to make it 24-18. San Marcos scored on a Dons serving error before Delany took a big swing for the match and powered the ball through the Royals’ block.
The Santa Barbara student body stormed the court and mobbed the team in celebration.
Santa Barbara was coming off a five-set loss at Oxnard in its Channel League opener last Thursday.
Meinzer said the tough defeat helped motivate the team.
“When we lost to a team that we probably should have never lost to, it was like the fight was back and we knew we had to win against SM,” she said. “It was really important, this game. We prepared a lot for this.”
The Dons used their tough serving to get a jump on the Royals in the first set. Emmy Werner, Tessa de Albergaria, Nicole Schuetz and Delany scored off serves to help build a 24-15 advantage.
McGibben got San Marcos going in the second set with her hitting out of the middle, blocking and serving. She scored on back-to-back serves, and Riley Green followed with a shot down the line for a 13-7 lead. Setter Josie Gamberdella got Elena Thomas going on the outside, and she helped expand the lead to 22-15.
Thomas bumped the ball over for the winning point as the Dons got caught out of position.
The pivotal third set was a thriller as the teams battled back and forth. The score was tied 12 times in the set. Byrd delivered a clutch angled-spike to tie it at 23-23, and Delany followed with a stuff of an attack on a tight pass.
San Marcos struggled with another tough serve from Werner and ended up hitting the ball off the antenna, giving the Dons a 25-23 win.
Santa Barbara coach Kristen Hempy said she was pleased to see her team finish plays after it struggled to close out the match at Oxnard.
“We talked a lot about that,” she said. “We worked on a couple of things, and they were really fired up. They just came out really sharp.
“San Marcos battled back, and they have Eloise in the middle who is really strong, and they have some good setting. But (my team) stayed focused on their game, and I’m really proud of the end result. They did a great job.”
Santa Barbara got key contributions from Byrd (6 kills, 3 blocks) and Wooten (4 kills, 4 blocks). Wooten delivered some clutch hitting and blocking out of the middle in the first and fourth sets. She had a solo block that gave the Dons the lead for good in the fourth set at 3-2.
“She kind of came alive, which was exciting,” Hempy said.
Delany led the Dons with a double-double of 14 kills and 11 digs to go with two blocks and four service aces. Schuetz had nine kills, six blocks and six digs, Meinzer put away seven kills and dished out 25 assists, and Byrd and Werner added six and five kills, respectively. De Albergaria picked up a team-high 18 digs and Werner had 11.
San Marcos was led by Thomas with 16 kills and McGibben with 13, while Green added seven.
San Marcos co-coach Tina Brown said the Royals got tight in the pressure situations of the match.
“I think one of our biggest challenges right now is to work through when we get pressure and realize how good we are,” she said. “We have a little bit of a tendency to get a little nervous and then panic. What we worked on in practice kind of goes out the window.”
She said Santa Barbara played better in the pressure situations.
The Royals struggled with their ball control for most of the night, but sophomore setter Gamberdella still managed to get balls to her hitters.
“I think we have the best setter in the league right now. Josie Gamberdella is unbelievable,” Brown said. “As a sophomore, she’s calm running a great offense for us. It comes down to our team, like doing the little things right and playing those multiple-ball rallies and being ready.”
She agreed that Santa Barbara did a better job on the scramble plays.
“This is a good, very solid team coming off a CIF championship season,” she said of Santa Barbara. “They’ve got a lot of confidence, and that’s something that we just need to find in our talent because we have the talent.”