ORANGE — An over-achieving Foothill girls volleyball team reached the CIF Division I state final but fell to a focused, talented buzz-saw in Palos Verdes 25-11, 25-14, 25-23 at Santiago Canyon College on Friday night.
Kaitlyn Vogel led Foothill (30-11) with eight kills and Kaycie Burdick and Lulu Hoenninger each added seven.
Burdick finished the year with 609 kills and Hoenninger was dominant in the middle with 253 kills and 105 blocks.
Palos Verdes (27-9) was paced by 6-foot-4 Stanford commit Kaci Demaria with 24 kills and a .346 attack percentage and UCLA beach volleyball commit Mallory LaBreche with 28 assists and nine kills. LSU beach commit Molly LaBreche, at libero, led the defense.
Last year’s 35-2 Foothill team reached the NorCal Open Division semifinals. After major graduations, this year’s Falcons were not favored to win the East Bay Athletic League nor reach a CIF Division 1 state final. They did both.
“It was super satisfying, especially to win league,” Burdick said. “At the start of the season, I thought we couldn’t win our league. But we play as a team even though we’re outsized every match.”
Foothill coach Dusty Collins stated that the week of Oct. 22-26 was one of the best in program history. The Falcons defeated rival Amador Valley to secure the EBAL top seed, then rallied past Carondelet in a reverse sweep and took the title by winning the fourth and fifth sets against San Ramon Valley.
Palos Verdes was coming off two years of disappointing state finals losses. Its focus and determination to send its seniors out differently was clear from the outset. Their serve, serve receive, blocking and attacking were all on fire, especially in the first two sets.
In the third, Collins tried different players and different attack points. Hoenninger and Sophia Burdick sparked the Falcons and EBAL MVP Kaycie Burdick found some openings against a defense designed to handle her line and cut shots. The teams traded leads but neither led by more than two points the whole way.
Finally, at 22-22, Demaria pounded the last of her two kills to end the match.
“The bottom line is the fact we got to this point.” Collins said. “That is the biggest thing I want them to take away. Did we play our best volleyball tonight? No. But after the first two sets, a lot of teams would not have fought back the way they did. That is what I’ll take away from this match.”
