The girls’ varsity volleyball team advanced to the Central Coast Section semifinals after defeating the St. Francis Lancers, 3-1, on Saturday at Valley Christian for the first time in more than 15 years of rivalry.
“St. Francis has been able to intimidate teams into not playing their best,” senior setter Allie Coleman said, “but we decided that we weren’t going to let that happen. Knowing that St. Francis is a good team, and expecting to have to work hard actually helped us because it made us stay focused and driven the whole game. We just came out with a lot more fire than they did.”
The Vikings gained an early lead in the beginning of the first game and maintained the lead with various sets from Coleman, and kills from senior Ally Whitson and junior Marissa Florant. The Lancers managed to steal the lead from the Vikings with kills from junior outside hitter Shaina Olsen. St Francis won the first game, 20-25.
“We were still trying to get into a rhythm, and we weren’t playing exactly to the scouting report,” Coleman said.
The large supportive and enthusiastic audience continued to cheer for the Vikings after the girls lost their first game.
“Our fans were cheering so much, and that really helped add to the energy that we already had,” Coleman said, commenting on the audience’s support before the match began. “Our fans were also great even when we were down. After we lost the first game, they were cheering and clapping when we were switching sides. It really helped to keep our energy and confidence up.”
Game two began with a competition for the lead from which the Vikings emerged with a five-point lead. Digs from sophomore libero Megan Coleman, and kills from Florant, Whitson and freshman Melanie Wade enabled the Lady Vikes to win the game, 25-19.
The Vikings entered ecstatically into the third game. After a serious of service errors from both sides, the girls managed to tie with St. Francis. Paly continued to strike back and matched its opponent point for point near the end. The game extended into overtime. After a service error from the Lancers, Marissa ended the set with a kill; Paly won, 27-25.
After a tight beginning in game four, both teams pushed harder to gain the edge. The Lady Vikes countered kills from St. Francis’ junior outside hitters Jordan Shaw and Olsen with digs, blocks and their own kills. Senior co-captains Whitson, Daniella Florant, and Coleman led the Vikings to victory and ended the final game, 25-20.
Both offense and defense performed extraordinarily well against St. Francis. After hustling to keep the ball in play, the team made a total of 51 kills and 79 digs from Whitson, Wade, Marissa, Daniella and the Coleman sisters. The Vikings also forced the Lancers to make 21 hitting errors.
“This was an epic match,” Marissa said. “We played really well and beat a good team.”
Paly will face Archbishop Mitty in the CCS semifinals at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Valley Christian. The Monarchs, the 2007 CCS champion, eliminated Paly from the semifinals in 2006. According to head coach Dave Winn, Paly is playing some of its best volleyball of the season and could be the best positioned team to confront Mitty. Daniella agrees with Winn about the challenge of defeating the Monarchs.
“We are about to play the No.1 ranked team in the nation,” Daniella said, “and all I have to say is that we are Paly and miracles do happen. In this game, there is no reason to hold back and play scared, we just have to go out there and show them everything we’ve got.”
Coleman also shares Daniella’s enthusiasm.
“Mitty is definitely a great team,” Coleman said. “But even though they are really good, if we manage to play an awesome, flawless game, we can take them. We have a lot of talent, and more importantly, we have a lot of heart and intensity.”