If a lot of folks aren't familiar with the Santa Barbara suburb of Goleta, they will be now, especially after the way the girls from just off Highway 101 played 250 miles down the coast in San Diego last weekend. 

Three previous ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com Girls State Athletes of the Week, two from this season and one from last, plus two potential honorees, all competed at the 16th Annual California Challenge on October 16-17 at Torrey Pines High.

We don't have repeat winners but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. All five girls played well, but in the end, there was no doubt as to who would be the winner of this week's award.

She has a solid team around her, including a twin sister, but Goleta Dos Pueblos' Carly Wopat was head-and-shoulders above anyone at the Cal Challenge, leading the Chargers to a defeat of the hosts for the tournament title in a field that included eight teams in the ESPN RISE Volleyball FAB 50.

Although Wopat, who earned tournament most valuable player honors, had 13 kills, five blocks and an ace in the 3-0 championship victory over the FAB 50 No. 46 Lady Falcons, it was her performance in a five-game semifinal win over No. 24 Manhattan Beach Mira Costa that was most impressive and the catalyst for winning ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com's Girls State Athlete of the Week.

It featured a matchup of big hitters, both seniors bound for Pac 10 schools.

Wopat didn't have quite as many kills as Mira Costa's 6-3 USC-bound senior outside hitter Falyn Fonoimoana, but the Stanford-bound 6-2 middle blocker and outside hitter's big moments seemed to come at more fortuitous times, plus she had her 6-1 twin sister, Sam, to help.

Fonoimoana finished the game with 35 kills and four aces, while Carly had 24 kills, four blocks and four aces. Sam added 13 kills four aces and a block.

The most impressive move of the match came in game three when Carly rose way up over the net to spike a ball ferociously straight down against a helpless blocker. 

Then, on the match point, she faked out two blockers before slamming home the winner. On both occasions, her elevation was phenomenal. 

"If we can set her high enough she can really elevate,” said Dos Pueblos first-year head coach Todd Garrett, a sports medicine and health teacher at the school for nine years with six coaching volleyball.

Part of the reason for Carly's ability to elevate is that both she and her sister compete in track and field, with Carly's best events the high jump, long jump, triple jump and discus. 

Surprisingly, discus is her best event, where she holds the school record after hurling the lenticular disc 136-feet, nine-inches.

"I think jumping has helped me a lot with my vertical leap,” Carly told CalHiSports.com. "A lot of people questioned discus and volleyball but discus helps me to get the same torque as volleyball and builds up my shoulder muscles.”

"Carly's competitiveness is just over the top, in a good way. She wants the ball and she wants to win. She's a leader on the court,” said Garrett, who also coaches for the same Santa Barbara Volleyball Club where the twins play but not their team. 

"It's a great option to have in tight spots because she finishes,” continued the coach, and then paused. "We're not afraid to go to Carly and we're not afraid to let the whole gym know we're going to her.”

While Carly had the definite upper hand at the Cal Challenge, and was recruited more heavily early on, the margin separating the twins in everything from height, to stats, other sports and even GPA is very slight. 

Because of that, this is almost as much a story about Sam as it is about Carly, since Sam could easily have earned this award either as a Charger, or if she starred for another school. Plus, Sam has also received a full ride 350 miles north up Highway 101 to The Farm, aka Stanford. 

"It didn't seem possible but it's a dream come true for both of us. We pretty much wanted to go to Stanford for a long time, so it's really cool,” said Carly. "We played on different club teams so they noticed me first but once they saw her they liked her too.”

Carly was not only noticed by Stanford but by USA Volleyball which named her to the Youth National Team the past two years, competing in Puerto Rico in 2008 and Thailand this past summer.

"Playing international competition was a great experience and I learned a lot about volleyball outside the U.S.,” remarked Carly.

Both twins are unbelievably close in many facets of their physical, academic and athletic life.

While Carly is 6-2, Sam is 6-1 with a very similar physique.

Carly carries a 4.8 GPA and had a 5.0 last year. She still has straight A's but she's taking a biology course that's not weighted so she can't have another perfect 5.0 this year, although it still seems pretty perfecto. 

Not surprisingly, Sam carries a 4.7 GPA. 

Carly hurls a discus best and jumps, while Sam's best event in track is the high jump where she's cleared 5-5. 

Both played basketball for Dos Pueblos as freshmen and sophomores but took a year off due to the academic load and volleyball.

"We might play basketball this season. We'll see,” answered Carly when asked if they might grace the Chargers' frontcourt this coming winter.

On the volleyball court, Carly's numbers this season include 171 kills and a 54.6-percent kill ratio, 35 aces, 54 blocks, and 70 digs. Sam has 175 kills, 40 aces, 18 blocks and 80 digs.

When asked about team and personal goals, Carly was matter-of-fact about the team, yet humble when it came to herself.

"At the beginning of the year our short term goals were to improve every practice and give a 100-percent effort every time. Our long term goals were to win every tournament, beat Santa Barbara, win the Channel League, win CIF and win state.”

So far they've won every tournament except one, and there they lost in the title match to the host San Jose Archbishop Mitty Monarchs (1-3) in the FAB 50 No. 1 ranked team's own tournament. 

The Chargers already beat arch-rival Santa Barbara once, in five games, and meet them again on October 27.

Should Dos Pueblos play through bracket play at the upcoming TOC in Santa Barbara, the possibility exists that the Wopat twins and the rest of the Chargers could get another shot at Mitty.

In the meantime, Dos Pueblos stands at 20-1 after a 3-0 victory over Ventura Buena, and No. 6 in the current FAB 50 rankings released this week.  

And what's it like having a twin sister and always having to hear about comparisons?

"We have a great relationship. It's really nice to have somebody with the same passion and talent, and it's great because we can talk volleyball. We don't fight very much even though we're both very competitive. We don't take the game off the court.”

Carly was eager to talk about teammates and credit them for hers' and team's success this season.

"Me and Sam have most of the same friends and they're girls on the team. Our setter Paige Craine is one of our good friends. We've known her since junior high.”

Senior Craine has 199 sets, 64 digs and 14 aces this season.

"And Sammie Brown, We've known and played volleyball with each other since elementary school. He mom introduced us to the game.”

Brown, a 5-10 senior setter, who missed the match with Mitty, has 70 kills, 17, aces, 47 digs, 10 blocks and 171 sets this season.

With all the numbers Carly and her twin have, its nice to have the perfect parents to add them up.

Her mom, Kathy, is a math teacher at Dos Pueblos. "She was a very good gymnast even though she's 5-10 and pretty tall,” said Carly proudly. Kathy did gymnastics at UC Santa Barbara, but she also did some track and field where she met her future husband, Ron Wopat.

Ron, a math professor at Santa Barbara City College, was an elite decathlete at UC Santa Barbara. "He was on the U.S. National Team for several years and made the Olympic Trials one year,” said Carly, once again with pride in her voice.

One brother is 14-year-old Jackson, who at 6-2 1/2 is already taller than the twins. "He taller than me and Sam – plays football and basketball but he's starting to learn a little more about volleyball and getting into that too,” said Carly.

The baby of the family is 11-year-old Eli, who Carly says is the family's best all around athlete. "He's very athletic – plays basketball, volleyball, baseball, track and field and he swims too.”

When a girl carrying an almost perfect GPA and getting a full ride to Stanford to play volleyball gives advice, it would be well-advised to heed.

"Work to get better and get your game to the next level by working hard at every practice, evaluate yourself and work on your weaknesses, and look at players at a higher level.”

Sounds just like what they're looking for up on The Farm.

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