Paly volleyball triumphs over Presentation in CCS semifinals

After its 33rd consecutive win and 35th overall win, varsity volleyball team advances to CCS finals

posted November 18, 2009

by Emily Fowler of Viking

The number two seed Palo Alto girls' volleyball team defeated the number three seed Presentation High School in five games in the Central Coast Section (CCS) semifinals at Valley Christian High School on Wednesday.

The Lady Vikes, who are on a 33 game win streak, now advance to the finals where they will play against Archbishop Mitty High School, who is currently ranked number one in the nation. With 35 total wins, the Lady Vikes also broke the school record for total wins in a volleyball season.

Paly started off strong and beat the Panthers 25-22 in the first game. Paly relied on kills from outside hitters Marissa Florant ('10), Maddie Kuppe ('12) and Trina Ohms ('11) to maintain a solid offense. Ohms, who led the team with 13 kills overall and also made 13 digs, noted that the team will need to tune-up its defense before the championship game.

Paly head coach David Winn, who recently won volleyball coach of the year for the De Anza league, commented on Ohms play.

"Trina had her moments where she was down in the dumps," Winn said. "She got stuff blocked a few times and I was a little worried. And then once that third game started I [thought] 'Oh there she is'."

In game two, the Lady Vikes fell to the Panthers 15-25 after losing the first 14 of 17 points. Florant, who recently won MVP of the De Anza league, had difficulty hitting around Presentation's blockers. Florant still stacked up 11 kills overall and led the team with 21 digs. She noted that the team should not have let the panthers secure such a large lead in the second game.

"We just let that server go on too long of a run, and that just happens sometimes in volleyball, when you can't stop the serve," Florant said.

Despite playing on a minor ankle injury, Florant displayed senior leadership throughout the game.

"Marissa was outstanding," Winn said. "She's playing on a little bit of a bum ankle, but she didn't show it. The term we kept using was 'cowboy it up'. Cowboy it up and say 'look, the season's not going to be over, not yet'.

Midway through the third game, Paly held a 21-14 lead over Presentation, but the Panthers had a six point streak and brought the score to 21-20. The Lady Vikes kept control of the board and won the third game 25-22 with a final kill by Kuppe.

The Lady Vikes entered game four with an overall lead of 2-1. The Panthers secured a 25-23 win in a closely contested game. Middle hitter Motade Atanda ('10) and outside hitter Emily Sklar ('12) headed Presentation's offense with a total of 12 and 13 overall kills respectively.

The Lady Vikes maintained the lead in the first half of game five until Presentation came back to tie the score 7-7. Kuppe broke the tie with a kill, one of 11 of the night. Presentation kept the game close until the score was 13-12 in Paly's favor. After both teams served the ball out of bounds, the score read 14-13 and middle and outside hitter Melanie Wade ('12) ended the game with a kill, bringing the final score to 15-13.

The Lady Vikes left the court tired after nearly two and a half hours of play, and very pleased with the win.

"My body hurts, and I cannot believe we just won and we're going to the finals," Florant said. "Our moral was down, but once the score was wiped to 0-0 [after the second game], I think we were fine, we just played our game."

Presentation head coach Ryan Cooling commented on the even match up of the two teams.

"It was unbelievable," Cooling said, "That's how these two teams have been all year. We match up really well with each other. I think that fact that they've been winning 32, now 33, games in a row was huge."

Cooling attests to the Lady Vikes' focus and determination even when they are behind.

"Their confidence never waivered," Cooling said. "They were never afraid of losing. Even when we beat them pretty good in game two, they came back even stronger. That team is a hard team to keep down. It's their confidence. They're riding a great win streak, and it's hard to not be confident when you've won that many matches."

Cooling also noted that the comeback style play of the Lady Vikes is not unique to this one game.

"They've won some matches when they're down two games to none, like Los Gatos, and won," Cooling said. "They never think they're out of it. And that's why they're so dangerous: they don't ever think they're out of it. They never think they're gonna lose."

The Lady Vikes are proud of the win and are excited to move on to the finals.

"It was not our best game," libero Megan Coleman ('11) said. "but we had a lot of heart. I'm very happy and excited to go to the finals."

To prepare for the upcoming game, the team will have to maintain its focus in practice on Thursday and Friday.

"We will work on staying tough and will focus on mechanics," Coleman said.

Wade says that the team is excited to play in the championship game, but also realizes that the team will need to have a strong presence early on in the game.

"We are pumped for finals," Wade said. "We really, really want to beat Mitty, or at least give them a run for their money. And if we lose, we still get to go to state. We need to clean it up earlier on in the game. We are really good in the fifth game, we have a strong sense of how to play the fifth game."

Mitty beat Saint Francis High School, 3-0, in the other semifinal. Paly faces Mitty in the CCS Championship at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21 at Independence High School in San Jose.

"We're gonna treat it just like any other match," Winn said. "We're gonna try to win. We're gonna try to find some things in Mitty to see if there're any weaknesses, I'm probably not gonna find any. But we're gonna treat it like any other match, we gotta play to win. We don't get these chances very often. If we get the chance to win a CCS title, we're gonna do everything in our power to win a CCS title."