The Santa Barbara Volleyball Club's 16-Smack team won the contender's bracket at the Volleyball Festival in Phoenix, Ariz.
Four teams from the Santa Barbara Volleyball Club competed at the annual Volleyball Festival in Phoenix and two of them earned top-10 finishes in the national tournament.
Coach Ed Gover’s 13-Smack team placed eighth and the 16-Smack team of Greg Novak finished ninth.
After losing its opening match the No. 3-seeded SCVC 13-Roxy, the 13-Smack battled among the top eight teams for chance at the finals. The team beat Coast 13-2 but lost to Wave 13-Abra to drop into the consolation bracket.
The 13-Smack rebounded against the Arizona Storm in two sets but lost the next two matches against SCVA 13-Roxy and Sunshine 13-Westside in three sets.
The 16-Smack improved on its No. 12 seeding out of 122 teams. The team opened the tournament with sweeps over two teams from Arizona and a team from Chicago.
The team was clutch on Day 2, winning a three-set match against AVA Texas to advance to the final 16.
The 16-Smack opened the third day of competition with a sweep over Legacy-16, but then fell to Saddleback Valley of Southern California. That forced the team into a double-elimination match to back into the championship round. It came up short against Ranch Valley, dropping the team into the contender’s bracket.
Santa Barbara beat Legacy 16-1 in two sets again and rallied from an 11-6 third-set deficit to beat Avoli of Puerto Rico. Colleen O’Conner stepped up to serve the team into a lead, coach Greg Novak said. “It was the spark to pull out the victory and send the team to the final match for ninth place.”
Once again, the team was pushed to a deciding set against Saddleback Valley 16-Jed and the team closed out the match 25-21, 17-25, 15-9 for the trophy of the contender’s bracket.
“Having six of our 12 matches go to three games in the desert heat, we had a very exciting and hot four days of volleyball,” Novak said. “We had so many great games and the team never let down or gave up. We saw the progress in all of the players and it was fun to sit back and watch the team have fun playing volleyball.”
The 16-Blue team just missed making it into the top 33 and played in the Century Bracket, finishing 52nd overall out of 122 teams.
“Everything seemed to come together for my team, including team court chemistry,” coach Lauren Rinderknecht said. “I wanted to note the defensive and offensive leadership of Bella Taron, offensive play of Tala Hishmeh, and overall play of Grace Halleck.”
The 18-Blue squad of Jacky Yao started on a high note, beating top-seeded and eventual champion Kane County in three sets.
Santa Barbara lost to Coast 18-2 in three games, putting it into a one-game playoff against Barcelona 18-Barca. The 18-Blue lost, bumping it from the championship bracket.
Santa Barbara, however, finished strong, dropping only one set and going 8-0 in matches for the remainder of the week to win the Contest Bracket. In the final, it beat Coast 18-2, 25-23, 25-23.
“Todd Garrett and I are so proud of how the team came together,” said Yao. “Everything we had worked on this entire season showed at the tournament. It was a lot of fun watching the girls go out with their trophies and winning the way they did after how hard every single one of the girls worked during the year. They earned it.”
Yao noted all the individual performances.
“Setters, Kira Schleich and Madelon Leiphardt did a phenomenal job with distributing the ball and creating opportunities that allowed our hitters to be successful.” he said. “Rachel Szeyller and Danica Smith played steady all weekend and scored key points down the stretch of games
“Katie Shea was amazing, she swung relentlessly and scored at will; she also stepped up her defense and made a couple amazing digs that allowed the team to convert into scoring opportunities.
“Lina Kleinschmidt and Arika Johnson were our catalysts all weekend. They anchored our blocking and scored for us in bunches through the middle.
“Finally, Katherine Crook and Megan Leiphardt were absolutely tremendous on the defensive side of the ball. They stabilized the back row and passed brilliantly all week”
