Diana Sleep and the Bishop Diego girls volleyball team brought the hardware on Thursday night, hammering down 47 kills in a 25-22, 25-13, 22-25, 25-23 victory over rival Carpinteria to put the nails a winless season’s coffin the day before Halloween.
Sleep led the Cardinals with 17 kills but setter Nicole Tetherow had several options going other than Sleep, including Mckenna Hogue and Haley Fuller, who had 11 kills each.
“It was so exciting!” remarked a barely-contained Tetherow. “I was very proud of us tonight.”
“I thought we got on our game a lot more at the end of the first game and kept it going,” said Sleep, one of six freshmen in coach Joe Reiken’s rotation this season.
The Warriors, who swept the Cardinals earlier in the season, didn’t make it easy.
After Bishop jumped out to win the first two games, Carpinteria took the third and pushed the Cardinals to the brink in game four.
“I’m so proud of every single one of my girls,” said setter Hannah Denitz, a senior captain. “We’re a small town, we’re a small group of girls, but we fought hard!”
“To come back and win that third game after losing the first two was a huge accomplishment.”
Denitz put down seven aces and five kills in the match. Caitlin Wallace had a game-high 19 kills and Yadira Saldana had a game-high 21 digs. Megan McMahon came through with five kills for the Warriors.
“That’s been something we’ve been working on all year,” said Reiken of holding off the Warriors. “There’s been quite a few games that we’ve been up in, and we lose it. Tonight, I think we broke the curse.”
Reiken’s girls may be young, but they’ve already had a taste of the long-standing rivalry.
“It was really nice to come back in our home gym and play them and beat them really good,” admitted Sleep, who said the Cardinals wanted to do better than when they played the Warriors in Carpinteria. “That made everyone a lot better.”
“Everytime we come here it’s a struggle,” conceded Carpinteria coach Katie Dolge.
Bishop Diego and Carpinteria are both 1-9 in the ultra-competetive Tri-Valley League with two matches remaining in their regular seasons next week.
