Bishop Diego’s girls volleyball team recovered from a blow-out loss in the first set and won the next three to defeat Santa Barbara High (11-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-22) in an oven-like Brick House Gym on Thursday night.
It was the first time since 1975 that Bishop won the crosstown match, according to Cardinals’ coach Dillan Bennett.
Senior Sophie Otte, hitting from the left, right, center and back row, paced the Bishop attack with a career-high 16 kills. She also had three blocks, three digs and a service ace.
Otte, who played middle last season, has taken on the role of Bishop’s go-to hitter following the graduation of Eliana Urzua and Nicole Schuetz, who are now playing Division 1 volleyball at UCLA and Loyola Marymount, respectively.
“I think it’s definitely a big shift,” she said of the new role. “I got to watch them like be the foundation of our team. It’s really fun to work with Karina (Urzua, the returning setter), Natalie (Chan) and Olivia (LaFlang) and kind of make our own season away from the legacy of Eliana.”
Otte has become like a Swiss Army Knife in Bennett’s offense.
“We’re definitely taking a very abstract take to our offense this year, where anyone can hit anywhere,” she said.
“This year, we’ve really had to change everything about what we’ve done the last four years,” Bennett said. “And this year, so far in the season, we’ve been pretty diverse in our offense. Tonight was really the first night Sophie stepped up and really took control. She had a really tough start but she responded really well, just understanding this is who you’re hitting against, this is where we want you to attack the ball.
“You don’t have to get the kill every time, but put (the opponent) into some trouble. And she cleaned that up in the second, third and fourth, and really stepped up.”
Santa Barbara controlled the first set, using tough serving and the hitting of Blake Saunders to win going away.
The Dons kept the pressure on early in the second set before Bishop settled down and started making plays. The Cardinals tied the score at nine, 11 and 12 before taking their first lead (13-12). After a Santa Barbara side out, Urzua fed Otte for a kill to ignite a momentum-shifting three-point run.
A putaway by Saunders, who led the Dons with 14 kills, and a pair of aces from Paylin Marcillac, sparked a rally that knotted the score at 19-19.
The teams traded side outs before a Santa Barbara hitting error gave Bishop the lead for good (21-20). Natalie Chan went back to the service line and scored the final four points. Otte finished the set with a solo block.
“You know what’s funny, we didn’t change a single thing in the lineup,” said Bennett about the second-set turnaround. “We just made a couple of defensive adjustments. …And, what we talk about a lot this year is if we serve tough, we can compete against anybody. It was a very ugly first game, yes, we did not believe we belonged in the match.
“In the second game, a couple of breaks go our way, and it’s a new ball game. So I think that second game was huge for our confidence and being able to close that out.”
Santa Barbara had a couple of bad breaks down the stretch: a close line call that went against it and, after a dig on a big hit, the ball hit a ceiling crossbeam to mess up a transition play.
Santa Barbara coach Kristin Hempy said her team hurt itself with errors.
“We were coming off a high-intensity win against Valencia Tuesday night, where we executed everything very well and made few errors. Unfortunately, tonight we just had more errors and some serve-receive ruts that didn’t help us,” she said. “Bishop played strong and consistent, and we still have a young varsity team, so we get to learn a lot from tonight about momentum, intensity, and mental toughness.”
Sophomore outside Kira Elliott added 11 kills for the Dons, and middle Lola Heckman picked up seven kills. Sophomore setter Jules Horton had 33 assists and eight digs, and Marcillac picked up 22 digs and served three aces.
Bishop got seven kills, eight digs and three aces from Chan, a returning starter from last year’s CIF-SS Division 3 finalist team, and seven kills and two aces from LeFlang, a JV player last season.
Chan and LeFlang continued their hot serving to start the third set, and Bishop raced to a 7-1 lead. Otte crushed a Urzua set for a 22-15 advantage, and the Cardinals scored on three straight Santa Barbara miscues to take a 2-1 advantage.
Down 22-19 in the fourth set, LeFlang served five points on a 6-0 run to finish the match. Otte scored the final two points on a solo block and a kill.
Bishop (4-1) and Santa Barbara (1-2) will be back in action on Saturday in the Cardinal Classic tournament. Santa Barbara is playing in the Gold Division at the Page Center while Bishop is competing in the Silver Division at home.
