Moriarty powers Chargers past Dons in four games

The Dos Pueblos volleyball attack was like a firing range on Thursday night at Santa Barbara’s J.R. Richards Gym, with Amanda Moriarty bombing from the left side and Taylor Racich blasting away on the right.

Together, they smashed 34 kills, leading the Chargers to a 25-22, 25-18, 23-25, 25-20 victory over the Dons to gain a share of the Channel League girls volleyball title.

Dos Pueblos, ranked third in CIF Division 1-AA, improves to 19-5 overall and 6-1 in league with one match left against Buena.  Santa Barbara falls 12-8, 4-2.

Moriarty was a force at the net all night. She added five solo blocks to go with a match-high 19 kills. She also put balls away from the back row and pick up a team-high 14 digs.

Lina Kleinschmidt of Dos Pueblos blocks a Santa Barbara overpass. (John Dvorak photos)

Moriarty helped the Chargers take control of the second set by blocking an overpass and then combining with Sarah McKinny for a roof to open up a 6-1 advantage. Later in the set she hit an off-speed shot off the block, combined with Lena Kleinschmidt for a rejection, smashed a kill on left and served up an ace for a 24-18 lead.

In the fourth game, she had back-to-back kills, teamed up with Kleinschmidt on another block and recorded a solo stuff to spark a six-point run that gave DP a 23-16 lead.

DP coach Todd Garrett was ecstatic over Moriarty’s play.

“Woo hoo, was she on fire or what?” he said. “The entire team played great. We passed really well tonight. Our game plan was we attack the ball and we get after it on the serve and we get after it on the attack. Amanda played out of her mind tonight, she really, really did. She played great. And, what was great about it was the other girls followed her lead.”

“We just wanted to come out and beat them,” said Moriarty, “We knew (Santa Barbara) would come out strong and want to beat us, especially in their own gym. We just came out and wanted it more.”

After struggling to put together a consistent attack in the first two sets, the Dons got something going in the third set, building a 14-6 lead behind the play of middles Remi Pulice and Holland Crenshaw and capitalizing on DP errors.

But the Chargers started to creep back into it. A McKinny-Tristan Racich block combination and a pair of aces by Tristan Racich keyed a six-point run, cutting the score to 14-12. A pair of aces by Sierra Hofstetter tied the score at 15-15, and the score was knotted twice more before a DP serving error gave Santa Barbara the lead for good a 19-18.

Tristan Racich sets up Sarah McKinny in the middle during DP's four-set win at Santa Barbara.

A step-out kill by Holland Crenshaw made 23-21 and a huge dig by Bailey Roach put the Dons at set-point.

But DP wouldn’t go down easy. A Taylor Racich kill and a block on Dani Rottman made it 24-23.

Santa Barbara prevailed when DP served long after a time out.

“I’m really proud how our the girls played,” Santa Barbara coach John Gannon said. “They put out the effort. The effort compared to the first match we played them (a 3-0 sweep at DP) was there.

“We were right there early on in the first set,” he added. “We had some chances and came back after being down 6-2 and 14-11. Both times after time outs our girls rallied. They showed they weren’t going to give up.”

Holland led the Dons’ attack with 10 kills and Roach picked up 12 digs on defense. What hurt the team was inconsistent passing, which in turn contributed to the limited number of sets to leading hitter Dani Rottman. She finished with just five kills.

“When games got tight, especially in first and second sets, we had to execute a little bit batter and that’s what we didn’t do,” said Gannton. “DP can do that to you because they serve really tough.”

DP got solid play from several players. McKinny was big in the middle with six solo blocks and four assists; setter Tristan Racich had three blocks, three kills and three service aces to go with her 48 assists; Hostetter had six aces and contributed five kills and Katie Speiler scooped up 11 digs.

“We did so well as a team, we worked together,” said McKinny. “We were looking forward to this. We came in to win it and we did it.”