Dos Pueblos outside hitter Natalie Klapp hits through the San Marcos block. (Photo Wade the Giant)
The pieces to the puzzle of winning volleyball matches were all there for the Dos Pueblos girls volleyball team. Coach Todd Garrett had seen them in practice.
The question he had was when would they all come together in a match.
He got the answer on Thursday night against defending Channel League champion San Marcos.
The Chargers put all the pieces on the Sovine Gym floor and they all snapped together in an impressive performance: a sweep of the Royals, 26-24, 25-13, 26-24. The win snapped a two-match league losing streak.
?We talked yesterday after practice, and I?ve been saying all year: We can block great on some nights, we can pass on some nights, we can serve well on some nights, we can hit well on some nights, but we took all those puzzle pieces and we?ve never had a night where we put all those pieces together and made the whole puzzle,? said Garrett.
?Whatever the picture,? he continued. ?winning is what?s going to happen with that puzzle; put all the pieces together for one night and see what we get. And, that?s what we got.?
McKenna Goss threw San Marcos completely out of system with her tough serving and the Chargers got good passing from libero Sam Sander, solid setting from Maddy Swenumson and powerful hitting from Natalie Klapp and Goss.
?Everyone put their best foot forward and had the passion to play the game and we won,? said Goss, who had eight aces in the match, including a run of three in a row in the first set that rallied the Chargers from a 19-18 deficit.
McKenna Goss of DP blocks a spike from San Marcos’ opposite Katie Kim. (Photo Wade the Giant)
?It?s always part of the game plan,? said Goss of the tough serving. ?Just tonight it seemed to click. I?m glad it did. It helped our team.?
San Marcos coach Erica Menzel was impressed with DP?s performance.
?They served us off the court, basically,? she said. ?We haven?t seen that (kind of tough serving) yet. I don?t think we were prepared with our serve receive.
?We couldn?t do anything,? she added. “We kind of beat ourselves. When we don?t pass, we don?t know what to do.?
The Royals (5-1, 1-1) fought back from a 17-12 deficit in the first set and tied the score at 24-24 after a DP hitting error. But the Chargers got the side out when middle Gillian Fry put the ball away.
A tough serve by Klapp had the Royals scrambling to get the ball over, and Swenumson set up Goss for a kill to score the winning point.
The second set was all DP. Goss keyed a five-point scoring run with three aces for a 13-3 lead.
The Chargers (1-2, 3-7) got up 14-7 in the third set before San Marcos made a comeback and tied the score at 16-16. DP got the momentum back after Swenumson set Fry in the middle for another kill.
?Maddy set a great game, she was mixing it up and moving the ball around,? Garrett praised. ?We tend to be one dimensional a lot of times. We could tell we?ve been scouted that way early on. They were committing to our pins with two blockers. Maddie played with confidence.?
Teah Burdick had a kill and then made a nice dig that resulted in a kill by Klapp to put the Chargers ahead 20-16.
San Marcos made another run and caught the Chargers at 24-24 on a stuff block by Carly Yarnell and Anika Wilson.
But this was DP?s night, and the Chargers responded with an off-speed kill by Burdick and a blast by Klapp to win the match.
Klapp shook her blond hair like a rock star after her spike hit the floor.
?I think the losses (back-to-back against Santa Barbara and Buena) really motivated us to come out hard and hot,? she said. ?We?re so happy, so pumped; the energy was going.?
Said Garrett: ?It?s not some magic thing we just did. We?ve been working on getting our middles involved, we?ve been working on passing better, we?ve been working on blocking. It just came together.?
