Caitlin Racich was a freshman when Dos Pueblos High’s girls volleyball team ran the table in the Channel League for the first time in school history.
Now, the senior can say her team accomplished the same, all while staving off a fierce rival and maintaining the Chargers’ No. 1 ranking heading into next week’s CIF Division I-A playoffs.
DP recovered from a shaky start and weathered an exhausting Game 3 to trump second-ranked Santa Barbara 16-25, 25-17, 27-29, 25-21, 15-12 to complete an undefeated league season Thursday night at J.R. Richards Gym.
“It’s been awhile since we won the Channel League,” Racich said. “This feels great. We set a ton of goals at the beginning of the season: one was to win the Channel League and others were to win CIF and maybe State. But this means so much to win this here tonight. This is awesome. We’re so excited.”
The Chargers (22-5, 8-0) stumbled in Game 1 and succumbed in a taxing Game 3, but they managed to absorb the blows and battle back each time.
“This is a difficult place to play, (the Dons are) well coached and they play well,” said DP coach Dwayne Hauschild, whose Chargers last won the league title in 2005. “This is a match where if you’re going to lose it, you hope it’s one of those back-and-forth battles.”
The Dons’ Hadley Simmons, Eve Ettinger and Mimi Cuttrell composed a potent attack that capitalized on DP’s shaky passing and unstable serve receive. A 7-1 run gave Santa Barbara a 12-4 advantage in Game 1. Madison Hamilton later served four straight points to push the Dons’ lead to 22-11. They led 24-12 before DP rallied for four consecutive points of its own, including two aces by Paige Craine, but a Simmons kill ultimately sealed the opening game for the Dons.
“Our passing was a little off in the beginning, but we started talking to each other more, and we were able to work through it,” said DP junior Samantha Wopat.
Samantha and her twin sister, Carly, erupted in Game 2, each pounding the ball in key moments down the stretch. With a 15-13 lead, Samantha had four attacks that resulted in points and gave DP a 22-16 advantage. Racich scored back-to-back kills to close out the game and tie the match 1-1.
Carly pounded a match-high 19 kills and Samantha added 15. Hauschild noted that his team’s passing stabilized after Game 1. DP’s Sammie Brown posted 35 assists while Craine added 23.
“Craine did a tremendous job,” he said. “When I saw her setting in warm-ups, I knew she was going to have a good night. She was on a mission.”
Assessments in pregame warm-ups also signaled how well the Dons’ night would go. An arm injury before the match prevented one of Santa Barbara’s back row players from taking the court in the regular-season finale.
“That’s not an excuse for us; DP played very well and deserves all of our respect and the compliments,” said Santa Barbara coach John Gannon, whose team finishes the regular season with 21-7 and 6-2 marks. “But we know we can play better, and we have an extra gear that we couldn’t go to tonight.”
Game 3 was closely contested, with 12 ties and a number of dramatic rallies that repeatedly brought the packed J.R. Richards Gym crowd to its feet. DP’s largest lead was 17-14, but it was erased by a Simmons kill and two hitting errors off strong serves by the Dons’ Emily Rottman, who finished with 11 kills and nine digs.
The teams traded points and DP received a scare at 21-21 when Samantha Wopat seemingly turned her ankle on a close play at the net. She briefly left the game while the Dons served four game-points before a clever tip by Ettinger gave Santa Barbara a 2-1 match advantage.
But just as they had before, the Chargers erupted in the following game, making quick work of the Dons in Game 4. A kill by Carly Wopat gave DP its largest lead, 23-15. Santa Barbara scrambled to make it close with tough serves from Jordan Fuller, but the Chargers’ Sally Yingst pounded the final kill that forced the Game 5.
Strong efforts by Yingst, who posted nine kills and three aces, would help DP take an early 5-2 lead in the deciding game. The Dons countered by running an effective attack through the middle, feeding Simmons continually until they forced ties at 7-7 and 8-8.
The Dons grabbed their final lead of the match 9-8 on an ace by Katherine Keller. Santa Barbara forced ties at 10-10 and 11-11, but DP proceeded to take over with a kill by Yingst and strong serves by Samantha Wopat. Her jump serve forced a Dons passing error for a 13-11 lead, and block by Racich gave the Chargers’ match point.
“(After a service error) we called a timeout just to see if we were settled down,” Hauschild said. “I looked around and saw that everyone was confident. They were like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got this,’ so I knew we’d be OK.”
Carly Wopat hammered the final point home to complete DP’s perfect league season. Now the question is whether those who create CIF playoff brackets will keep the Channel League’s best squads No. 1 and 2.
“We’ve lost to quality teams,” Gannon said. “But we’ll watch the tapes and see that if we get the opportunity, we can play better against these teams. It’s just a matter of us hitting on all cylinders.”
