Santa Barbara's Dani Rottman goes up for a kill.
A unfair draw in the CIF Division I girls volleyball playoffs has left Santa Barbara High’s team feeling a little frustrated, but there wasn’t much to be frustrated about against visiting Peninsula on Tuesday night in a 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 sweep to advance to the second round.
Lauren Capritto make a perfect pass off of a Peninsula serve (photos by Vince Agapito).
Eve Ettinger and Dani Rottman tallied 11 kills apiece and Katy Villanueva added six. Setter Kira Schleich had 10 digs, six blocks and a pair of aces for the Dons, who faced a relatively one-dimensional attack from Peninsula (17-14) in the form of Aliison Lee. The senior’s big arm swing produced 20 kills, but Santa Barbara (21-9) was too balanced.
“They keyed on her, but they didn’t stop her. Her kill percentage was actually best towards the end rather than the beginning, but anytime you’re asking one girl to carry the entire team offensively it’s just difficult,” said Panthers coach Mike Jagd. “A lot of credit to Santa Barbara. They’ve got big blockers wherever they need big blockers.
“I’m sitting over here drooling at the idea of being able to put up 6-footers at the corners.”
Dons coach John Gannon was pleased with his team’s clean play, as the Dons committed only three hitting errors in the first two games.
“As a coach, I want us to play with a little bit more emotion and a little bit more excitement, but we play well without that so hopefully we can add that on Thursday when we go down to play [Long Beach] Poly,” he said.
The tenth-ranked Dons’ tough draw (they’ve beaten four of the teams seeded higher) makes them the underdogs in the second round, where they’ll play on the road against the No. 2 Jackrabbits. Poly is 32-2 on the year and 80-11 in sets. Jagd said that the Dons are going to be up against a lot of firepower.
“Poly’s got some Samoan girls who really smack the snot out of the ball, so that matchup should be a lot of fun to watch,” he said.
The USC-bound Ettinger, who was a starter on Santa Barbara’s CIF Championship squad in 2008, said her team is trying to put a positive spin on the draw.
“We’re going to have to come out with a lot of intensity. We didn’t get a good seed at all. We beat some higher level teams, but now we play some harder teams first so it might increase our level and make us more pumped up,” she said.
Santa Barbara trailed early on in the first set against the Panthers, but Villanueva pounded a kill from the middle that gave the hosts a 7-6 lead. Morgan Riegert and Kira Schleich shoveled up big-time digs on the next rally as Rottman ended it with a put-away. Ettinger then had a big dig on the following point, which Rottman once again finished with a kill and the Dons never looked back.
Santa Barbara trailed early in the second set as well, but Holland Crenshaw picked up back-to-back kills to make it 8-7. The Panthers tied it up again at 14-14, but Ettinger caught fire down the stretch and the set ended on a Rottman kill. The Dons ran away with the third set thanks to some key contributions off the bench, including a solo block by Katie Schuster and a quick-set from Emma Mascari which was put down on a nice swing from Remi Pulice.
Santa Barbara celebrates after the sweep.
