Sacred Heart Cathedral gets signs, wins first state girls volleyball title

A kindly state trooper, 19 servings of Jamba Juice and USA national team Director of Operations Gary Moy.

None of them or it led the Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco, Calif.) girls volleyball team to its first state championship. But each served as good signs.

The Irish (37-3) won their school's sixth title in any sport (four girls basketball crowns and one boys basketball) with a three-game Division III sweep over Saddleback Valley Christian in Orange County Saturday. Kayla Yew and USF-bound Madison Murtagh combined for 28 kills, and Maia So-holloway and Amanda Santa Maria combined for 38 assists to lead the way.

The title was extra satisfying for 12th-year coach Margi Beima who led over-achieving squads to the state championships four times before only to fall short. The Irish have won six Central Coast Section titles and this year won their first co-championship of the West Catholic Athletic League champion Mitty, which won its record 11h state title as well.

"I would never describe it as a monkey off our back but it was definitely thrilling to win that last match of our season," said Beima, who won her 370th game against 120 defeats. "I just think we had been in so many tough spots this season — down 2-1 to Valley Christian and El Camino (Sacramento) the previous two match — the situation or setting wasn't too big. We could handle anything. And we did."

Even a mini crisis before the match. Senior defensive specialist Tara Amoroso's parents got into a car accident heading to the game. They were not hurt, but were more than an hour away. They told Amoroso they simply couldn't make the match at Santiago Canyon College.

"She was in tears," Beima said.

But the match started a little late and 10 minutes before it did, her parents walked in. "A state trooper had driven the parents directly to the game," Beima said. "What an act of kindness."

The night before at the American Sports Center in Orange, the Irish got their final practice in when Beima was approached by Moy.

"Is this Sacred Heart Cathedral?" he asked. "From San Francisco?"

Turns out Moy was a 1976 Sacred Heart graduate, a fact Beima had no clue. He posed for pictures with the team and swapped stories. "It was all a good sign," Beima said.

So was securing the five different flavors and Jamba Juice the team requires before every big match. Beima made the large order and the Irish, per superstition, downed them three hours before game time.

"Best $100 I ever spent," she said.

It was ball control and defensive prowess that made this SHC team so money. Always superb on defense, Beima said she and her staff that include James Jacobus, Nga Tran, Raimi Mitchell-Young and Josh Barrina, knew this Irish team was exceptional the first week of practice.

"We have a "control the kill" drill that weeks that takes weeks and even months to get down," Beima said. "The first time we ran it, we executed better than we've ever done before. We knew we had something special."

The victory celebration too was special. "We all embraced in a group hug and jumped up and down," Beima said. "We didn't want to stop."

The accolades don't stop coming in. MaxPreps national volleyball editor Tom Mauldin had the Irish 18th in the Xcellent 50 final national rankings. The MaxPreps computer rankings had them all the way to second in the nation. See the two rankings system side-by-side.