Dos Pueblos and Santa Barbara have played some titanic girls volleyball matches over the last few years, and Thursday night’s encounter at JR Richards Gym was another thriller.
In a battle for sole possession of first place in the Channel League, the visiting Chargers outlasted the Dons in five sets. The scores were 25-20 17-25, 17-25, 25-23, 16-14.
DP finishes the first round on top with a 3-1 record (5-6 overall), while Santa Barbara is in a second-place tie with San Marcos and Ventura at 2-2.
“Tonight was a total team effort,” DP coach Todd Garrett said. “Our middles worked their butts off to open things up for our pins.”
Colleen O’Connor was a force with 14 kills and a .308 hitting percentage.
Teah Burdick (11 kills) got the Chargers off to a good start in the first set, but Santa Barbara, spurred on by its crowd, roared back and dominated the next two sets.
DP fought back from the 2-1 deficit behind the play of sophomores McKenna Goss (12 kills, .348) and Natalie Klapp at the net and the serving of Mia Cattaneo. After Frankie Lewis gave the Dons a 23-21 lead in the fourth set, Goss put down two kills and Cattaneo served back-to-back aces during a four-point fun to rally the Chargers to victory.
“She served two tough serves out of two timeouts, with an ace after the second time out, to give us the victory in game four,” said Garrett of Cattaneo.
In see-saw fifth set, Santa Barbara was a point away from taking the match. Goss evened the score with a cross-court kill and DP took the lead after a Santa Barbara hit went long. Emma Craine came up huge at the service line down the stretch for Chargers. She served the final two points to give DP the thrilling win.
Tessa Dewell led Santa Barbara with 12 kills.
