Anika Wilson spikes the ball off the Dos Pueblos block as Royals teammates Andie O’Donnell (5) and Chloe Allen cover. (Wade Carr)
Anika Wilson sparked a seven-point run in the fourth set, and San Marcos showed good balance in beating Dos Pueblos in a Channel League girls volleyball match Tuesday night at the Thunderhut.
The victory avenged a loss at DP during the first round of league and kept the Royals on the heels of first-place Santa Barbara with two matches to play. They are 4-2 in league, one game behind the Dons. Dos Pueblos falls to 2-4.
With the score at 15-13, Wilson stuffed a DP overset and followed with a kill to ignite the run. Chloe Allen followed with a bomb of a kill from the left side and middle Carly Yarnell blocked a dump on one to stretch the Royals? lead to 19-13.
Dos Pueblos wasn?t about to go down without a fight. Veronika Gulvin went on a four-point serving run to pull the Chargers to within two at 20-18. Wilson finally got a sideout for the Royals with a kill off the block.
The junior outside hitter finished the match by ripping a spike through the block that DP was unable to control.
Wilson led the Royals attack with 12 kills, Chloe Wilson had 11 kills and Emily Allen added 10 kills.
?I was really feeling it tonight; Andie was setting me great in transition and everything was just clicking,? said Wilson. ?When we play with high energy, we play really, really well.?
San Marcos coach Erica Menzel felt her team wasn?t sharp at the beginning of the match and said it might have been due to all the Senior Night activities.
?We just didn?t play our game. I felt there was a weird energy,? she said. ?We served horrible. (Assistant coach) Tina (Brown) and I were looking at each other and saying: ?What is it? What do we do??
Chloe Allen of San Marcos rips the ball past Dos Pueblos blocker Veronika Gulvin ( Wade Carr)
?(Fortunately) we have a lot of weapons and I think that helps us,? she continued. ?(Setter) Andie (O?Donnell) has a lot of options. We passed really well in the third and fourth games, and that helped Andie out.?
O?Donnell finished with 30 assists.
Defensively, the Royals did a good job picking up the hits of DP?s Natalie Klapp (15 kills) and McKenna Goss (14 kills). The team had 33 digs, with libero Anastasia Kunz leading the way with nine followed by Chloe Allen with eight and Emily Allen with six.
Despite the loss, DP coach Todd Garrett liked how his team battled.
?I felt we made them earn most of what they got,? he said. ?San Marcos played well, congrats to them. We had trouble stopping the middle in transition. There were some fun, long rallies … some really good volleyball. We let a couple points get away from us but it was really point for point most of the night.?
He praised Gulvin for setting at a faster pace.
San Marcos is back in action Wednesday at Ventura. The match was switched from Thursday. The Royals lost to the Cougars in the first round of league play.
?From here on out we have to win to tie for the Channel League,? said Menzel.
