With Lila Westmacott on point with her sets and Charlotte Hastings, Sam Fallon, Gracie Stone and Cora Loomer burying balls, the senior-dominated San Marcos girls volleyball team was not about to let Santa Barbara High get any ideas of pulling an upset in their second crosstown meeting on Tuesday night.
After being pushed to five sets in the first encounter, the Royals took care of business in three at a steamy Thunderhut and inched closer to the Channel League title. The scores were 25-16, 25-11, 25-20.
San Marcos improves to 12-0, with two matches remaining. The Royals can clinch the outright title at home on Thursday against 11-1 Ventura. Santa Barbara stands in third place at 8-4.
San Marcos made it a rough night for the Dons with tough serving and a diversified offense.
Royals’ coach Erica Downing said she and her staff saw a need for some changes after playing a variety of strong opponents at tournaments like San Luis Obispo, the Santa Barbara Tournament Champions and last weekend’s Redondo/Mira Costa Power Classic, where they faced powerhouses Sierra Canyon and Buchanan.
“I think our volleyball acuity increased a little bit and we were able to make changes that we probably wouldn’t have been able to do in the beginning,” she said. “I will say our serve-receive passing was nails and Lila Westmacott had the best setting game she’s had all year. So that was huge for us.”
Westmacott, who had 32 assists, connected well with Fallon, who put away eight kills in the middle, and Stone on the right side. She had six kills, with most them coming on explosive straight-down hits.
“I came in with a lot of confidence,” said the southpaw Stone. “I knew this game we wanted to win in three and I told (Lila), ‘Set me,’ and I gave her that reassurance. And I just kept feeling confident putting the ball away. She set great balls, so it was a great connection we had.”
Downing said accurate passing was the key to the efficient offense.
“(Lila) had like free choice of three hitters, two hitters. I thought she dumped well; she kept (Santa Barbara defenders) honest. We’ve been really working on that a little bit. And, our defense was really good, too. We made (Santa Barbara) do a lot of things that they don’t like to do.”
Stone contributed on the defensive side with three blocks. Westmacott added two aces and a pair of kills to her stat line.
The versatile Hastings led the Royals’ attack, collecting 15 kills while hit from the back row, the left side and the right side. She also served two aces. Loomer added six kills for San Marcos (23-6).
Lola Heckman and Blake Saunders each posted six kills and Kira Elliott added five for Santa Barbara.
“Unfortunately, we came out a little flat overall and it took us until the third set to get things sorted out,” said coach Kristin Hempy. “We put up a nice battle in set 3 and ultimately just made a few too many unforced errors at the end.”
The Dons built a 7-2 lead in the third set, but San Marcos worked its way back and took the lead for good (16-15) on a kill by Loomer. She followed that with a float-serve ace.
Santa Barbara continued to battle and trailed 18-17 before Westmacott took charge. She sided out on a dump then served a taped-ace and fed Stone for a kill during a 4-0 run that flipped the momentum.
“Against a strong offensive team like SM, it’s hard to win a set when we make unforced errors. We’ve got some areas to continue working on as we look to bounce back Thursday when we host Pacifica.”