Henry Hancock delivered in the go-to role for the Santa Barbara High boys volleyball team in a four-set win at Dos Pueblos on Tuesday night.
Hancock buried 18 kills and hit .500, leading the Dons to a 19-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-20 win at Sovine Gym.
The victory gave Santa Barbara a sweep of its crosstown rivals on the road in the first round of Channel League play. The Dons are 3-0 in league and 7-5 overall. Dos Pueblos is 1-1 and 6-7.
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Hancock put his signature on this win. In the second set, he served three straight points to break a 13-13 tie and later put away three kills in a row for a 24-20 lead. In the clinching fourth set, the junior buried a ball down the line and then crushed a overpass to break a 16-16 tie. Luke O’Neill served an ace and Hancock followed with a stuff block to put the Dons ahead 20-16.
“I was doing the best I could. It’s expected of me that I can do a lot of that stuff,” the 6-4 Hancock said. “It’s really important for all of us to do that, actually.”
Santa Barbara coach Chad Arneson said Hancock “let’s his play do the talking. He’s a quiet kid, but he’s contagious. When things are going well, we tend to set him a lot and ride on his shoulders. I’ve never seen a kid hit so high and over the block. There are times when he’s hitting way up high at a college level. The sky’s the limit for Henry. He has the potential to be a D1 player. He definitely was our go-to player.”
In addition to his play at the net, Hancock was big at the service line. He had five aces in the match.
“This year I started getting into the jump serve and I’ve been practicing a lot,” he said. “Just recently I started to get it but I’m still working on it.”
Dos Pueblos was on its game at the start. The Chargers came out with tons of energy and made plays to stun Santa Barbara. The blocking and hitting of Elliot Brainerd, Eli Wopat ignited a 4-0 run to give DP a 18-13 lead. The lefty Wopat served a pair of wicked, swerving jump serves for aces for a 23-17 advantage.
“The first game they came out a lot harder than we thought they would,” Hancock said. “We weren’t as good as we should have been and realized we have to push really hard to get the next three. And we did.”
Said Arneson; “I told the kids coming in that they’re an emotional team and (DP coach Ehren) Hug does a great job of inspiring those kids to play hard. We just have to be consistent. We had to settle down and take a deep breath, including myself.”
Hug said DP’s “ball control started deteriorating a little bit” after the first game. “And Santa Barbara started hitting a few more serves in the court. Hats off to them to keep playing and keep grinding. They stepped up their game and we tried to follow suit and play hard.”
Wopat led the Chargers with 14 kills, two aces and two blocks. Adam Shields recorded 7 kills and Elliott Brainerd had 5 kills and 5 blocks.
The hitting of Wopat on the outside and Shields in the middle staked DP to a 12-9 lead in the third set. Later, the Chargers capitalized on Santa Barbara errors to go up 15-13.
Dos Pueblos then started having trouble making plays in transition. Santa Barbara setter Cord Pereira took advantage and created one-on-one situations for his hitters to exploit.
“They run a quick offense and sometimes in those transitions balls come at you so hard it’s difficult (to get a clean dig),” said Hug.
Pereira fed Hancock for a kill on the outside, Cooper Johnson put the ball away in the middle after a Bolden Brace dig, Blake Kelley and Johnson combined on a block, Dos Pueblos committed a hitting error, Kelley recorded a kill and Johnson had a block solo for a 6-0 run.
“I had to go with a different lineup,” Arneson said. “We went with Henry on the outside and Blake Kelley played opposite for us, and he’s experienced at that position. We have those options and that’s a nice luxury to have. We steadied it out. Will Rottman’s passing was pretty solid and we were becoming a better in-system team.”
The Dons hit an impressive .380 in the match. Bolden Brace posted a double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs, Johnson had 8 kills and 3 blocks.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
