ORANGE – The storybook season for the Santa Margarita girls volleyball team came to a swift end Saturday night.
Archbishop Mitty of San Jose was in dominant form from the start of the CIF State Open Division championship match and never slowed down, eventually sweeping Santa Margarita, 25-19, 25-22, 25-18, Saturday at Santiago Canyon College.
The state title is the fifth in a row for the Monarchs (38-4) and their seventh in the past nine years. Their previous titles came in Division II.
Santa Margarita (38-5) was making its fifth finals appearance and first since 2003.
“They looked experienced and they looked like they’ve been here before,” Santa Margarita coach Katy Daly said. “They played loose, together, and I think we played tense, didn’t communicate at all. Tonight wasn’t the style of play that we’ve had all season.”
The Eagles, who captured the CIF-SS Division 1 title, had lost only one set during their trek to the CIF SoCal Regional title.
Archbishop Mitty started the match on fire, hitting .655 in the first set, with just one error. They finished with a .442 percentage.
Arizona-bound Candice Denny led the attack with 17 kills, and Nicole Liddle and Kamrin Caoili added 13 and 12, respectively.
“I think they played a great match,” Daly said of the Monarchs. “All players involved played great. They passed well, served well and got us out of system. I don’t think we played to the best of our ability, and it is hard to finish a season that’s been so great and we’ve played so well, like that.”
Trailing 1-0 in the match, the Eagles were tied, 17-17. The Monarchs then went on 6-1 run to take the lead for good. The Monarchs never trailed in the third set.
Senior Meghan McClure led the Eagles’ attack, finishing with 15 kills. Sarah Ciszek added 10. Abby Van Winkle and Haley Carmo had six and five, respectively.
“I know since freshman year, our goal has been to win CIF,” McClure said. “It was just an amazing experience to win such an incredibly difficult CIF division. Our new goal was (to win) state, and I’m so proud of us to make it this far.
“I would want my season to end a little differently, but I wouldn’t want to end with any other girls. I think our team had a great run and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The teams met earlier this season in the semifinals of the Durango Fall Classic in September with Archbishop Mitty winning on the way to capturing the tournament title.
“I knew that they would figure out how to stay present against an incredible defense,” Archbishop Mitty coach Bret Almazan-Cezar said of his team. “We had three kids in double digits (kills) and one with eight. They just did their job.
“When we played them (Santa Margarita) in Las Vegas, I thought that was our best match of the year. I knew we had good matchups against them, but we also know that their incredible defense has been on fire.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
