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By Keith Peters
Palo Alto Online Sports

Sacred Heart Prep dominated Central Coast Section girls' volleyball in the 1990s, winning nine straight Division V titles from 1990-98. After that, the Gators made only one appearance in the section finals, a Division IV loss to rival Menlo in 2001.

Things were pretty quite on the Sacred Heart Prep campus after that. Until Saturday. That's when the third-seeded Gators completed their somewhat surprising run through the Division IV bracket with a 25-15, 26-24, 25-22 victory over top-seeded Notre Dame-Salinas at Independence High in San Jose.

Sacred Heart's run was a special one and it included a victory over No. 2 Mercy-Burlingame in the semifinals. Mercy defeated SHP twice to win the West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) this season.

Now, for the first time since 1998, the Gators (23-10) will head into the CIF NorCal playoffs that begin Tuesday night. Sacred Heart Prep, the No. 4 seed, will open at home against No. 6 Marin Catholic (29-11), the North Coast Section runnerup.

A victory on Tuesday most likely will send Sacred Heart on the road to face No. 1 Christian Brothers of Sacramento (27-9) on Saturday. If the Gators manage to pull an upset, they'll probably face No. 2 Salesian of Richmond (26-7), the NCS champ, in the NorCal finals on the road. At stake is a berth in the CIF State Championships on Dec. 5 at the Bren Center on the campus of UC Irvine.

"Without a doubt, our team's energy took us through the week's matches!" said SHP second-year coach Damien Hardy. "Without it, we would normally struggle. I think the girls finally realize that energy is our biggest strength, so I truly hope that we bring that to our contests this week and next week"

Sophomore Jesse Ebner had 11 kills and seven block assists for the Gators in the title match while senior Christine Renschler added 10 kills, sophomore Sarah Dashbach contributed eight kills, senior Margot Roux finished with 27 assists and senior DeAnna Kneis added 15 digs as the leading back-row defender.

The Gators were the only local CCS champions that saw Palo Alto, Menlo-Atherton and Castilleja all play in the finals -- with all advancing to the NorCal playoffs.

In the CCS Division II finale at Independence, two big winning streaks collided in the feature match on Saturday as No. 1 seed Mitty brought its 35-match winning streak to face No. 2 Palo Alto's school-record 33-match win string. The Monarchs came in ranked No. 1 in the nation while the Vikings reportedly were No. 42 nationally in another poll.

Something obviously had to give, and it did, as Mitty improved to 36-0 and Palo Alto fell to 35-4 following a 25-14. 25-12, 25-23 victory by the West Catholic Athletic League champs.

Both teams could meet again in the NorCal playoffs. Palo Alto is actually the No. 2 seed but is No. 5 for travel purposes. That means the Vikings will travel to Chico on Tuesday to face No. 4 Pleasant Valley (31-8), the Northern Section champion.

"I have seen some video on Pleasant Valley but it was from very early on the season," said Paly coach Dave Winn. "We'll just have to try and adjust faster than they do to us. I like our chances, but it's always hard after a long bus ride and playing in an unfamiliar gym."

A victory by Paly would keep the Vikings on the road Saturday for a match at St. Francis of Sacramento (37-6), the Sac-Joaquin Section champ.

"They have some tall, powerful girls on that team," Winn said of St. Francis, "and it will be quite a conquest to beat them. But, of course, our goal is a rematch with Mitty."

The CCS final, according to Winn, was not much of a match until Paly dug in the third game and put up a good effort with some great swings from Maddie Kuppe and nice defense from Megan Coleman and Marissa Florant. Mitty grabbed a 10-5 lead in Game 3, but the Vikings improved their blocking and defense behind junior Megan Coleman and put on a 10-4 spurt. The game was tied at 23 until Mitty's Ronni Lewis poked one to an open spot on the floor before the Monarchs finished it off.

"Well it was certainly an experience," Winn said. "I hope they learned from it. That was the first time that they played like a young, scared team all season. When they finally got settled down and took some pride in their work, they actually played pretty well in the third game. I never would have guessed that it would be our block that kept us in the game, but it did. I'm sure we'll be hungrier the second time."

For Palo Alto, it was the Vikings' first appearance in the CCS finals since 2000 and only their second time there ever in school history.

Menlo-Atherton also didn't have much postseason experience heading into the Division I finals on Saturday. In fact, it was the Bears' first time there in school history. Second-seeded Menlo-Atherton (21-8) put up a fight before dropping a 25-19, 25-16, 25-22 decision to No. 1 Salinas (27-4).

Menlo-Atherton, seeded No. 6 for NorCals, will head into its first-ever appearance in these playoffs by visiting No. 3 Amador Valley (29-7) in Pleasanton on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Amador Valley won the NCS championship.

The Bears will have to be less nervous this week or suffer a similar fate as they did in CCS. A lot of unforced errors and inexperience added up to the loss. Early on, M-A committed six unforced errors, played tight and couldn't get its offense flowing. Salinas had six seniors while the Bears had just one, setter Sophia Cornew.

"This was a classic example of a seasoned, experienced team playing a young team," said first-year M-A coach Jennifer Wilson. "We had some problems at the beginning, but I was glad to see us play better as the game went along.

"I am hoping that the team worked through its nerves during Saturday's match so we come better prepared to face Amador Valley, but that remains to be seen. I think we learned some valuable lessons from our loss on Saturday. You have to work hard for each and every point and you can never back down. I think the girls now realize they have nothing to lose so why not leave it all out on the court?"

Castilleja didn't have an experience problems in the CCS Division V final on Saturday morning. After all, the Gators were making a seventh straight appearance in the section title match and came in as the defending state champions in the division.

That, however, still wasn't enough as No. 2 Castilleja (17-13) fell to No. 1 Mt. Madonna (26-6) by scores of 25-23, 17-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-9. Junior Laura Rose led the Gators with 14 kills while senior Erin McLaughlin added 12 kills, sophomore Hannah Boland had 12 kills and sophomore Lindsey Wang finished with 12 kills. Junior Sophie Koontz had 40 assists. McLaughlin and Shelly Steyer are the team's only seniors.

"I thought we played well at times, but overall too inconsistant to win against a team that has solid passing and defense," said Castilleja coach Tracie Meskell.

Castilleja is the No. 5 traveling team and will hit the road Tuesday to face No. 4 Ripon Christian (17-16) in the Central Valley at 7 p.m. A victory will earn the Gators a berth in Saturday's semifinals against No. 1 Branson (31-5) of Ross. Second seed Mt. Madonna could be waiting in the finals on Dec. 1, should Castilleja get that far.

"I think that NorCals will be tougher this year," Meskell said. "The teams from the other sections are better and so we have a tough road ahead of us. I will be happy just to make it to the Norcal finals. Being the four seed means we will be challenged every step of the way. I hope we will get one more chance to play Mt. Madonna. Revenge is always a great motivating factor."

The last time Castilleja and Mt. Madonna (Watsonville) met in the NorCal playoffs, the Gators fell in the championship match in 2007.

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