SAN JOSE — The Archbishop Mitty Monarchs captured first place in their own girls volleyball tournament over the weekend and defeated a pair of nationally ranked teams in the process, but coach Bret Almazan-Cezar still found some areas where he feels his team can improve.
"We need to find some more diversity," he said following his team’s 3-1 win over Dos Pueblos. "We can’t expect to win a state title if we don’t get more people involved."
The observation will likely result in a tweak in Mitty's offensive attack, but nevertheless, the results for the Monarch so far have been impressive. Ranked No. 1 in the nation in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 volleyball rankings, Archbishop Mitty went 4-0 over the weekend and lost just one game, a 29-27 marathon to Dos Pueblos in the finals, to up its overall mark to 9-0. The one-game loss to the Chargers was the first game Mitty had dropped all season.
The Monarchs were simply methodical in mowing down their first two opponents on Friday. Mitty downed Analy of Sebastopol 25-7, 25-12 and 25-12 before dispatching St. Francis of Sacramento 25-13, 25-21, 25-20.
Facing defending CIF-Southern Section champion Santa Barbara in the semifinals, Mitty had little trouble with the Dons, who were ranked No. 14 in the Xcellent 25 rankings. The Monarchs received 10 kills from All-American Rachel Williams and won 25-13, 25-11, 25-9.
Kristina Graven (left) and Rachel Williams (right)
at the 2008 state finals.
Photo by Jann Hendry
The championship match pitted the Monarchs against Dos Pueblos, a team that knocked off No. 8-ranked Berkeley Prep in the semifinals 3-1 and was ranked No. 9 in the Xcellent 25 rankings.
The Chargers sport two of the top hitters in the nation in sisters Carly and Sam Wopat. The duo dominated the net in the semifinal win over Berkeley Prep, with Sam blasting 20 kills and Carly finishing with 19.
However, Mitty has a pretty strong pair of hitters of its own in Williams and senior Kristina Graven. The Monarchs consistently set the pair to the left side throughout the match, and it ultimately proved to be the key to the victory.
"We have a pretty good pair of All-Americans on the pin," Almazan-Cezar said. "So we want to try and set them as much as possible. We served and passed pretty well in this match, and we were able to keep the other team off the net."
While Mitty always had the option of setting Williams or Graven on the left side, Dos Pueblos set up its rotation so that the Wopats rotated to the back at the same time. Mitty was able to exploit the strategy to its advantage.
"We really wanted to make a push when they were in the back row because Carly and Sam are just great on the net," Almazan-Cezar said. "We made a couple of runs against them when they were in the back, but I was impressed that in game three we made a big run when both of them were on the front."
The two teams traded sideouts in the first game before Metty went on an 8-1 run to stake a 20-12 lead. Brittany Bozzini had thre kills and a block during the run and added an ace a few minutes later to get Mitty to game point at 24-14. Joan Coloiaro added an ace one rotation later for the final point in a 25-15 win.
In the best game of the night, Dos Pueblos overcame an 8-3 deficit with an 11-1 run. Sally Yingst served eight straight points and Sam Wopat had two blocks and two kills during the run to put Dos Pueblos up 14-9.
Both Wopat sisters were in a groove in the second game, enabling the Chargers to build the lead to 20-12 before Mitty mounted a comeback. The Monarchs went on a 12-4 run and held off gamepoint to tie the match at 24-24.
The two teams traded sideouts for the next five rotations. Every time one of the Wopat sisters earned a point with a kill, Graven answered with a kill to get the ball back. Carly Wopat finally delivered a kill and then an ace to give the Chargers a 29-27 win and even the match at 1-1.
The Chargers’ momentum slipped away in game three, however, as Mitty stormed to a 6-0 lead and put the game away early, 25-13, on a flurry of Williams kills. The 5-foot-10 senior had six kills in the win, her highest single-game total in the championship match.
Dos Pueblos rebounded and held a 13-6 lead in the fourth game, but Graven took her turn as the Mitty hero. Sparking a 12-3 run, Graven had six kills to give Mitty a lead it would never relinquish. Although Dos Pueblos closed to within 24-23, Shannon Flemming closed out the match with a kill from the right side to end it 25-23.
Graven finished with eight kills in the fourth game and unofficially had 17 for the match. Carly Wopat finished with 16 kills while Sam Wopat had 18 kills and four blocks.
Santa Barbara rebounded from its loss to Mitty in the semifinals to defeat Berkeley Prep in five games for third place.
"I think losing to Mitty in three games in the semifinals might have helped us against Berkeley," Dons coach John Gannon said. "We were a lot fresher and more active than we were against Mitty. We’re a young team, so we’re going to have to grind out our wins, but we’re off to a good start (7-1) and I couldn’t be more proud of these girls."
Santa Barbara did its best to set Eve Ettinger, the team’s tallest player at 6-1, and its best hitter. She came up with seven kills in a 25-20 win in the first game and five in a 25-21 win in game four. Ettinger then came through with five kills in the fifth game for a 15-12 win.
"We took her out of the back row in game four to keep her legs a little fresher for the fifth game and it worked out," Gannon said.
Berkeley Prep, a private school out of Tampa, Fla. and a state runner-up last year, received strong play from Jordan Burgess and Lindsay Young on the front line. Burgess, a 6-foot sophomore, had 14 kills in the match while Young, a 6-1 middle hitter, had seven kills and three blocks.
