Santa Barbara High's Frankie Lewis takes a swing on Saturday
The 2010 edition of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions girls volleyball tournament is in the books, with San Jose’s Presentation crowned as a first-time TOC champion.
Presentation – led by tournament MVP Emily Sklar – fought off La Costa Canyon in the semifinals, then took out Harvard-Westlake in the final 25-21, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18.
La Costa defeated rival Torrey Pines 25-23, 25-17, 22-25, 25-18 in the third-place match.
The host Dons were happy with their result, a John-Gannon-era-best fifth place. Not only that, but Santa Barbara defeated Archbishop Mitty for the first time in school history in its morning match before bringing down Cathedral Catholic in five sets.
“That was a really good win for us,” said Santa Barbara head coach John Gannon of the second match. “We told the girls it would be a good day to beat Mitty… It would be an even better day to beat Cathedral.”
The game scores were 26-24, 25-23, 29-31, 19-25, 15-10. Cathedral Catholic fought off three match points in the third game to creep back into the match. Santa Barbara regrouped in the fifth set, winning the deciding set without trailing once.
The match ended with Dani Rottman’s team-high 23rd kill. Rottman added seven digs and three blocks to her stat line.
“After our loss to last night La Costa Canyon, we really wanted to get a good five-game win out of it,” Rottman explained. “I think we were just really hungry for a win. It’s been a while since we’ve closed out a close one at the end. It’s good and encouraging for us.
“It’s always hard to have a lead and then give it up but it’s important to always keep going and give it our best.”
Attitude is just what Dos Pueblos head coach Todd Garrett thinks the problem was with his Chargers, who finished a disappointing 14th place. After starting the tournament with two losses on Friday, Dos Pueblos came back and swept Buchanan in their first match of the day.
Then came a 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 14-25, 15-12
“We just didn’t play with any passion,” Garrett thought. “It basically comes down to our attitude and it was between the ears. It was nothing else.”
Chargers libero Katie Spieler saw it too.
“We need to get that drive back that we had before and that energy on the court,” Spieler said. “That’s one of our biggest strong points that has gotten us this far in league.”
Dos Pueblos returns to Channel League play on Tuesday with the chance of finishing off a perfect league season if it can get by Buena.
