The Santa Barbara Volleyball Club’s 16-Smack team had its work cut out for it being seeded 32nd in the gold bracket of the final Southern California Volleyball Association tournament of the year.
The 16-Smack gave some of the top teams in Southern California a battle in going 0-3 in pool play — it took eventual tournament champion Laguna Beach to three sets. The other losses were to Saddleback Valley 16-Ki and Coast 16-Sato.
“The incredible defensive skills of Emily Lunt, Izzy Sagely, Mia Cattaneo and our libero Emma Craine made it possible to keep us within a couple of points of our opponents all day,” said coach Greg Novak.
On Sunday, the team “played some of the best volleyball of the season, beating each of our opponents in two sets,” said Novak.
The team beat Club Troy 16s, Rancho Valley 16-Premiere, and Wave 16-Janna. A memorable moment came in the last set of pool play where Sammie Rhine took matters into her own hands against Wave at 23-23 in the second set and finished out the match with back-to-back stuff blocks.
The team advanced to win the first match in the upper bracket playoff, beating Elite 16s 25-18, 25-14, and ultimately losing in a close semifinal match to Tustin 16-Mark. Santa Barbara ended up with a 19th-place finish for the tournament.
“It was a great two days of volleyball and a great way to finish the season. The team made great strides in their play and showed a promising performance to prepare for the season-ending tournament in Phoenix,” said Novak.
The 16-Blue placed second both days of pool play in the Bronze bracket. On Saturday the team beat Culver 16-John and Sports Shack 16-CC, and lost to San Gabriel 16-Premier.
On Sunday the team beat San Diego 16-Jamie and Seal Beach 16-Elite, and barely losing a 3-set battle to Cross Point 16s 25-17, 19-25, 16-18. The team then beat Kern River 16-G 26-24 in the first round of playoffs, then lost to T-Street 16-Kristen 17-25 to finish 79th overall.
