ORANGE — Archbishop Mitty hung in with Cathedral Catholic-San Diego in Saturday’s night CIF Open Division state championship match.
But in each set, the Southern California champion had too much firepower and too much defense as the Dons swept the Monarchs 25-21, 25-20, 25-16 at Santiago Canyon College.
Junior Makenna Crosson led Mitty with 13 kills and freshman Chayse Courtney contributed 11 kills. Senior setter Kacie Caoili dished 29 assists. Libero Nicole Macalintal paced the defense with nine digs and 33 serve receives.
Cathedral Catholic (46-3) was paced by Mae Kordas, who delivered 18 kills with a .457 attack percentage from both the outside and the middle.
“It hurts,” said Mitty coach Jon Wallace, whose team finished 29-7. “It should sting a bit. They (Cathedral Catholic) played really well. Number 12 (Kordas) is really good and puts a lot of pressure on a team. We did a good job in our region and area. We won nine straight sets, but it’s a different animal here.”
After six straight CIF state titles from 2012-2017, Mitty had a short drought but has now appeared in three of the last four Open Division title matches as the NorCal champ. Although Cathedral Catholic did not have the generational talent of its 2022 team, the 2024 squad had quietly reeled off 22 straight wins and lost only three sets since Sept. 21.
The Dons, ranked No. 7 nationally by MaxPreps, were coming off Tuesday’s SoCal title win in four sets over No. 2-ranked Mater Dei. Cathedral Catholic hit .330 as a team. Kordas was complemented by the middle attack of Allison Dzieciuch with nine kills and a .692 attack percentage and Kensley Hennessy with five and .714.
“We were passing well today,” Dons coach Juliana Conn said. “We were going to people we knew could do damage. Then when they figured it out, we went to other girls.”
The Monarchs were within three points late in the opening set and within four in the latter stages of the second but could not turn the tide. In the third set, the tally was 11-11 and then the Dons pulled away.
“Throughout the game, I tried to spread the ball around more,” Caoili said. “It’s tough. They’re a good blocking team. And they got a lot of digs we weren’t expecting.”
San Ramon Valley 3, Centennial-Bakersfield 1
The Wolves won their first state title in their first appearance, catching fire after the opening set to beat the Golden Hawks 22-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-23.
San Ramon Valley (31-9) was led by Lucy Chertock with 19 kills and Ellie Hunt with 16 kills. Kate Stern passed for 42 assists and libero Ali Cook had 10 digs and 32 serve receives.
Centennial (30-11) was paced by Ila Rose with 15 kills and Jordan Kennedy with 12.
In the second set, the Wolves hit for an incredible .519 attack percentage, headlined by Chertock’s amazing nine kills and no errors in 10 attacks.
“The big thing was with Hope (Diekmann) serving, we would get them out of system,” Chertock said. “And Kate Stern was giving me these ‘dime’ sets.”
Later, Stern spread the attack beyond Chertock and Ellie Hunt to Sophia Vella and Jenna Hunt and also put down five kills herself. The Wolves also sparkled at the net, recording 24 blocks to Centennial’s nine.
“I felt the back row did a tremendous job on first ball contact,” SRV coach Brian Fujinaga said. “That enabled us to run our offense.”
Central Valley Christian-Visalia 3, Monta Vista 0
A superb playoff run by Monta Vista featured seven straight wins, while dropping just three sets.
The Central Coast Section Division II title and the NorCal D-III title brought the Matadors to the school’s first team appearance at a state finals in any sport since 1969. But the Cavaliers from Visalia were too strong on the attack and at the net as CVC won 25-15, 25-22, 26-24.
Monta Vista (29-7) was led by UC Santa Cruz-bound Kiana Mark with 15 kills and younger sister Kylee Mark with seven.
The Cavaliers (46-3) were led by Lola Highstreet with 10 kills, Ally Lane with nine and Emma Mihalcin with eight. CVC’s height was a factor at the net, with 18 blocks to the Matadors’ six.
“We didn’t play bigger teams the whole post-season,” Monta Vista coach Nadia Lan said. “In the third set, we hit smarter and tried to not power through everything. But we gave everything we had and we gave them a good fight.”
