SAN DIEGO — San Marcos High School has the best middle tandem in San Diego County in Olivia Durr and Lauren Feiler.
Facing the Knights — the No. 3-ranked team in San Diego — in Saturday’s championship of the 31st annual Scripps Ranch Girls Volleyball Tournament, San Dieguito Academy setter Lexie Richards had a plan of moving her hitters around constantly to tire Durr and Feiler out so much they wouldn’t be as effective attacking.
Executed to near-perfection.
Playing each other for the third time this week, Richards quarterbacked the Mustangs offense to the title with a 25-23, 18-25, 15-13 win.
“I asked my hitters to tell me if their middles were shading to their side,” said Richards, a senior headed to American University next year. “(If they were), they would yell no no no. Then I would just set away from them. Just make them run a lot and they’d be too tired to hit.”
Richards almost didn’t make it to the championship as she played with a swollen right ring finger after jamming it against a teammate earlier in the day.
The Mustangs (17-8) were already short-handed in the middle, missing junior Riley Balogh. But the combination of players filling in and a powerful pin combination of seniors Joie Brown and Hannah Demiter meant they were ableto win long rallies.
“In my opinion defense is an attitude, and for people to come in and be willing to hit the floor was very impressive,” Mustangs coach Jasper Neale said. “They have some pretty talented middles. It was definitely a collective effort and attitude.”
SDA — ranked 11th by MaxPreps — has 10 seniors on its roster, and according to Brown, this is their first high school tournament title in their four years together.
Early in the first set, Brown had a kill on the right side in serve receive and then went to the service line and dialed up three consecutive aces. She was an easy pick as tournament MVP.
“We all made the decision that we were going to win this tournament,” said Brown, who had 12 kills in the championship and was ed on the all-tournament team by Richards and junior libero Ellie Burr.
“This is going to be it for us. Every single player stepped up on the court and on the bench. Everyone did their part and made it happen.”
Host Scripps Ranch (16-5) beat Sage Creek (19-10), 14-25, 25-21, 15-8, for third place in the gold division. The Falcons placed Riley McDonald and Bryce Leatherwood on the all-tournament team. Christian (16-8) defeated La Jolla (4-9), 25-22, 25-23, for fifth place.
San Marcos (23-4) was also not at full strength. Starting outside hitter Ellie Woolwine injured her knee Friday night and didn’t play. Six-foot junior outside Eva Deninger was also unavailable.
That meant Knights coach Sherry Clouet moved around a lot of pieces this weekend, which made it a challenge to consistently get the ball to Durr (nine kills) and Feiler (five) in the championship.
“We were out of system a lot more than we normally are,” Clouet said. “Normally we better so it’s easier toset our middles. When we’re setting our middles and also have big hitters who can terminate on the outside, it’s a way different game than what we just played.”
In addition, outside hitter Alexis Schwartz was just cleared to play at this tournament following concussion protocol. She was outstanding, notching nine kills and an ace in the title match.
