Tough night for St. Francis in their home gym. Castilleja was fired up and swept (i.e dominated) the Sharks in 3 sets. The Gators were lead by Harvard bound
outside hitter Taylor Docter who was on fire. Cal bound middle Katherine Brown was stuffed at least 4 times by opposing blockers and mainly limited to line
kills from the outside rotation. Really too bad the Sharks could not run their normal 6-2 system with senior standout Megan House who was forced to play as a
DS in the back-row due to a recent shoulder dislocation. Telling when in the 3rd and final game the Shark's coach had to call their 2nd time out at 3
points as the Gators were eating them alive. They did manage to wrestle to higher ground and make a 9 point comeback, but by then their fate had been sealed.
Congrats to them for another long play-off run post-season and a well-earned victory in CCS.
Norcal DV Final
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Posts: 65 (12/02/08 21:19:12) |
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allball |
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Posts: 3 (12/03/08 15:20:30) |
Castilleja was certainly fired up - the reverse of the CCS championship match. Close balls landed in for Castilleja and out for St. Francis. Too bad about House as it made it easier for Castilleja to focus their block on Brown, the only St. Francis player who seemed to be able to put the ball away. St. Francis was plagued with poor passing most of the match. |
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Posts: 24 (12/04/08 19:17:36) |
I think it is important to point out the absence of Megan at outside hitter. When you lose a player who is basically 30% of your offense and a decent blocker,
it is going to hurt your chances. It would be similar to Harbor High not having Ruff or Levonian on the floor. Being a 3rd place team in league and getting to
the Nor Cal finals is a pretty good end to the season. I would venture to guess that Tri City Christian will take care of Castilleja because they are really
not very strong. DV is just a different bird. It is interesting to note that 4 out of the 5 state finalists from Nor Cal are in the CCS. Pretty good.
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Posts: 28 (12/06/08 15:23:36) |
I obviously missed Castilleja getting better all through Nor Cals. They win state in 5 over Tri-City Christian. Christian Brothers gets hammered by Santa Fe
Christian in DIV Final. They did the same thing to Harker last year. Keeping my fingers crossed for Homestead. It would be nice for the north to win 3+ this
year.
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Posts: 66 (12/06/08 18:28:15) |
I agree about House being absent from the front row, but I also think the Sharks were out-coached by the Gators. The Castilleja coaches had their girls working
some good mojo, but even still the Sharks should have been able to work some of their own CCS-winning counter-mojo to take a game or at least have closer
scores. Coaching can be the difference. Also sometimes the stars align for the path to victory and glory and being healthy or not is part of that. But I still
think coaching can be key. To take the state final you have to know your opponents all along the way as best you can and have a serious game plan to counter
their strengths. I hear this didn't happen with Harbor on their way up. And St. Francis had no answer for the Docter from Castilleja. Did they have a
strategy for dealing with her w/o house? Didn't seem like it to me. But the Gators had a serious strategy for Brown as they stuffed her quadruple times and
put her ball back in the court atleast another quadruple. The gators strategy and execution paid off. I hope they win state with the same kind of effort.
News flash.....they did!! 16-14 in 5th game. Congrats to the Gators. Third time is a charm. (2005 and 2006 runners-up). |
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