Royals and Dons Shine at Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions

Local girls’ volleyball teams San Marcos, Santa Barbara, Bishop Diego and Dos Pueblos competed in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Friday and Saturday.

The Royals, Dons and Cardinals all reached the quarterfinals and San Marcos finished in third place overall in a deep tournament field. Elena Thomas showed tremendous leadership for San Marcos and was named to the All-Tournament team.

“Honestly for us as a team, our whole team, everybody did so much,” said San Marcos coach Dwayne Hauschild. “For me it’s nice for Elena to be recognized for the maturity and the growth throughout the season, she is one of our captains, but she was the leader that we needed out of her specifically in this tournament.”

After a bye in the opening round of the tournament, San Marcos opened with  a 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-19 victory over Corona Del Mar to punch its ticket to the quarterfinals.

The Royals followed that up with a 25-12, 25-27, 25-22, 25-23 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday morning to advance to the Semifinals.

After dropping a tough four-set match to St. Francis of Mountain View in the semifinals, San Marcos bounced back to defeat Newbury Park 29-27, 25-23 in the third place match.

Santa Barbara has experienced rapid improvement over the last few weeks and the Dons proved that they are a team to contend with in the Channel League at the Tournament of Champions.

The Dons defeated Valencia on Friday 23-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-20 to advance to the quarterfinals.

After a 25-19, 25-15, 25-22 loss to Los Gatos, Santa Barbara defeated Bishop Diego 25-10, 24-26. 25-17, 25-20. The Cardinals were without UCLA-commit Eliana Urzua, who twisted her ankle earlier in the tournament.

In the fifth place match, The Dons battled Yorba Linda coming back from a 21-9 deficit in set two to win that game 29-27, but eventually dropped the match 25-22, 27-29, 15-12.

“The great thing about tournaments is that you really do get to gel a lot. You get to try different things and figure out what’s really clicking,” said Santa Barbara coach Kristen Hempy. “It’s really fun to see them find their competitive edge after a slow start to the season.”

The Dons have been boosted by the rapid development of freshman Kira Elliott and sophomore Blake Saunders. Senior setter Gwen Chenoweth has also provided a steady hand as the Dons are now 12-12 overall and 5-4 in Channel League play after starting the season 1-7.

St. Francis defeated Clovis 21-25, 25-9 25-14, 25-10, to claim the tournament championship. Ella Fulton of St Francis was named tournament MVP.