NorCal Issue 201, November 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 NORCAL EDITION VOL. 12 ISSUE 201

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t wasn’t really until this time of year — the opening weeks of fall season playoffs — that it became clear how much the high school sports landscape lost over the last two years.

Postseasons have begun across multiple sports in every section, and there’s a buzz throughout several communities in anticipation of what’s to come over the next month. Football undoubtedly brings its gravitas to the fall postseason, but it’s been extremely refreshing to see volleyball, water polo and golf transition to playoff mode too. Cross country won’t be far behind, either.

Heck! Section championships have already been held in girls golf! We’re two weeks away from our first CIF state championship. When the state’s best girls golfers tee it up at Poppy Hills Golf Club in Monterey on Nov. 16, it will have been 596 days since the last official CIF state championship event (wrestling on Feb. 27-28, 2020).

It felt like it had been forever since I was checking section websites on a Sunday afternoon waiting for playoff brackets to be posted, and to see how much I disagreed with the seeding.

In a couple weeks, we’ll reach peak return-to-sports when winter sports like basketball and soccer begin playing their first games while the fall postseasons reach their crescendo. Those couple weeks are equally the most fun — and most stressful — time of the season here at SportStars HQ. We wanted this issue to be a reflection of all that’s happening right now. Therefore we have features highlighting three different sports across three different sections.

Our cover story shines a spotlight on emerging North Coast Section cross country power, Dougherty Valley-San Ramon. We also have features on an undefeated Antelope football team in the Sac-Joaquin Section, and St. Ignatius-S.F. volleyball — a legit state championship contender from the Central Coast Section.

SportStarsMag.com will also have more coverage of postseason action across all sports throughout the month of November. That’s also where you can find our up to date NorCal rankings for both football and girls volleyball, as well as links to our weekly football podcast, 7 Friday Night.

Also, as mentioned above, the hoops season is right around the corner!

We will once again be producing our NorCal Basketball Preview issue, due out right before Thanksgiving. Keep an eye out on SportStarsMag.com in the coming days to vote on the program you think deserves to be on the cover.

High school sports are truly back in all their glory, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring you their stories. Enjoy! ✪

YOUR TICKET TO CALIFORNIA SPORTS ADMIT ONE; RAIN OR SHINE This Vol. #12, November 2021, Whole No. 201 is published by GoSportzStars Media LLC, PO Box 741, Clayton, CA 94517. SportStars™© 2010-2014 by Caliente! Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Receive FREE Digital Subscription in your inbox. Subscribe at SportStarsMag. com. To receive sample issues, please send $3 per copy, or $8 total for bulk. Back issues are $4 each. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of Publisher is strictly prohibited. The staff and management, including Board of Directors, of SportStars™© does not advocate or encourage the use of any product or service advertised herein for illegal purposes. Editorial contributions, photos and letters to the editor are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor. All material should be typed, double-spaced on disk or email and will be handled with reasonable care. For materials return, please enclose a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. SportStars™© and STARS!™© Clinics are registered trademarks of Caliente! Communications, LLC.

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jorge hernandez jr ANTIOCH - FOOTBALL - SENIOR Antioch High ran 18 plays in the fourth quarter of its gritty 6-0 win at Liberty-Brentwood on Oct 29. And the Panthers’ coaching staff called Jorge Hernandez Jr.’s number 14 on all but one.

Hernandez Jr. had 16 of his 33 carries in the fourth quarter and rushed for 118 of his seasonhigh 279 yards. He also punted during the quarter, and sealed the win by intercepting Liberty quarterback Nate Bell with 6.6 seconds left. Hernandez’s 279 rushing yards were the most by an Antioch running back since Pittsburgh Steelers rookie Najee Harris posted 304 against San

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Ramon Valley in November 2016. The senior, now over 1,000 yards on the season, has been a big key to the team’s five-game winning streak that will have it playing at Pittsburg for the Bay Valley Athletic League title on Nov. 5.

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11.20.16 Folsom High’s McKenzie Forbes is photographed during a photo shoot for our 2016-17 NorCal Basketball Preview. Both her dad, Sterling Forbes Jr., and grandfather, played for the Harlem Globetrotters. After spending her freshman year at Cal, Forbes transferred and will be a junior at Harvard this season.

James K. Leash photo

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NCVA Shares Tips To Make Volleyball Players More Recruitable

T

he fall season can be an emotional rollercoaster for an unsigned/uncommitted senior volleyball athlete (and for juniors in the same situation). As the author of CollegeVolleyballCoach. com, I receive numerous emails from volleyball families who are a bit panicked because college coaches are telling them they are done recruiting, or not responding at all.

Families must remember that this is the most important time of the year for college volleyball coaches; the collegiate playing season. College coaches are trying to not get fired, to secure a raise, get a contract, or pushing for a great record so they have the opportunity to move up the job ranks, etc. While recruiting never ends, the coach’s focus is almost exclusively on the players in the gym and achieving the best possible season right now.

As the collegiate playing season comes to a close, the collegiate recruiting season starts. College volleyball programs will have immediate roster spots and scholarship positions to fill for seniors and juniors. From NCAA Division I to junior colleges, injuries, academics, homesickness, playing-time issues or job changes can all create immediate roster spots and scholarship opportunities which may not have been available one month ago.

The active collegiate recruiting season begins in late November, when the collegiate seasons come to a close. Make sure you are ready to be recruited.

Be registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center and have your NCAA ID number listed on all your recruiting literature/profile.

If you are a junior or a senior, have a current copy of your high school transcript and ACT or SAT test score ready to send to colleges.

Use the small window of time between the end of high school volleyball and the start of club volleyball to address any injuries or physical issues. Rest does not fix problems, it only masks them.

As a senior, you need to be at the top of your game early in the club season. College coaches are looking to make immediate recruiting decisions on seniors, so you don’t have time to play your way into shape.

Use practice to improve your weaknesses, but always play to your strengths in early tournaments: Show your best skills to watching college coaches.

Re-examine your list of outreach schools. If you have been contacting a certain level of program and no school is getting back to you, then it is time to adjust. Responses or lack of responses from a grouping of schools, provides valuable feedback.

Create a five-minute highlight or skills video of your most recent court time to have available for coaches. Don’t show clips/repetitions from September of your high school season, as it will be too old. Film the last matches of high school, or better yet, film the first few club volleyball practices.

Stay active in your outreach to colleges and communication. Roster openings will be occurring all through the holidays. Even though you may have already written a school, college coaches don’t go back through all of their emails when they have an opening; they respond to the next incoming email.

There is still time on the recruiting clock for seniors (and definitely juniors), but no more time to let slip by. Use these next couple of weeks to prepare for the opening of the collegiate recruiting season. ✪ — Matt Sonnichsen for NCVA 8

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From left, Andy Richards, Rhea Braganza, Shane Badcock and Sabrina Noriega

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After Establishing Itself As A Championship Program Within The North Coast Section Over The Past Decade, Dougherty Valley Cross Country Looks Poised To Begin Building A CIF Reputation Too

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Rhea Braganza

C

racking into the ranks of California’s most elite teams in cross country is not easy.

Certain schools dominate year in and year out. Down south, the mighty Great Oak of Temecula has won the last six boys CIF Division I state titles and eight in the last decade in girls. Up north in the East Bay, the girls from Campolindo-Moraga are a force, with five state championships in Division III in 20 years, most recently in 2019 when the school won both boys and girls state honors.

But Dougherty Valley in San Ramon is threatening to crack the ceiling, or at least crowd into the top floor. Their postseason adventure gets underway with the East Bay Athletic League championships on Nov. 6 at Newhall Park in Concord.

“When you get the chance to really experience racing the best teams, like Newbury Park and Great Oak, and Bellarmine up here and Dublin, you really get the feel for what it’s like to be in that mix,” said Andy Richards, one of the core junior boys runners. “When the postseason comes along, we’ll get even more of a chance to race those guys.”

Opportunity has arrived for Dougherty Valley, which has competed at every division from IV on up, and is now entrenched as a contender in the top division.

“There are great teams out there like Buchanan (of Clovis) and other teams that are well known,” said senior girls runner Rhea Braganza. “Dougherty has not made its name in cross country or track as a team yet. But we never have had that kind of attention yet. It would be new and it is something we try to work for, because we know we haven’t gotten it before.”

Most recently the Wildcats shined on the CIF state championships course in Woodward Park, competing in the Rough Rider Invitational on Oct. 15. There Dougherty’s girls finished second to Campolindo 46 to 60 in the large school 5,000 meters, with freshman Sabrina Noriega fourth (18:44.8), Braganza fifth (18:46.9) and Eva Shen eighth (19:00.3).

The boys finished third with Shane Badcock leading the way (16:15.2). He was 14th, but true to form, he led a Dougherty pack that nabbed five of the ensuing 12 spots.

It’s not as if the Wildcats have not enjoyed success before. The school, which opened in 2007, has collected boys North Coast Section Division I titles in 2016-17 and girls NCS championships in 2009 in Division IV and 2017 in Division I. But now they exude confidence that they can succeed statewide.

Founding head coach Stephanie Banbury built the program into a successful one. She moved out of the area before this season, so the program is now led by Lauren Nakaso, an assistant the past five years, and Ralph Gowen, a longtime volunteer.

Both the boys and girls teams are enjoying fine seasons, each with distinct characteristics. The boys are a fun-loving bunch who may not have that standout runner, but have tremendous depth and consistency. The girls are powered by an impressive freshman and a potent senior group.

For the girls, freshman Sabrina Noriega has provided a spark with her unique approach to racing.

“Our freshman is fearless,” Gowen said. “She goes to the front and stays there, which is very

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Shane Badcock

entertaining to watch.”

Noriega runs her style, while her teammates take a more traditional measured pace, starting off slower. “But then they close like freight trains. And they finish not that far behind,” Gowen said.

Hers is a different approach, but very successful.

“I never really have a racing strategy. I just race by my heart,” said Noriega, who started at age 9 in USATF and AAU races.

“From then my dad worked with me so much and coached me, and that just developed my love for running even more.”

Her contributions have been a pleasant surprise for her teammates, who quickly made her feel at home.

“They encourage me a lot and offer a lot of support, which is the nicest thing for me,” Noriega said. “We are all really positive and cheer each other on.”

Noriega has given great hope for the present and future.

“She’s been a great addition to our team in terms of finding someone who is able to push us constantly and also, I feel like she is the hope for the future in Dougherty,” said Braganza, in her fourth year of varsity for the Wildcats. “We weren’t expecting her but she became a really key component of our really strong team. And she’ll be here for her sophomore, junior and senior years, so I will be very happy to see where she goes with it.”

At the start, the older runners didn’t know what to make of her. She made an impact with a school-record 5:03 time in a 1,600 run conducted on Campolindo’s track.

“We all were pretty nervous about Sabrina, but in a good way,” Braganza said. “How much potential does she have? What can she do? She likes to get out there and run with the guys and push herself to extremes. And that is what we all look up to her for.”

Braganza and her fellow seniors take a different approach, but it all adds up to team victories.

“She likes to take bolder moves at the start. She likes to get up there with the front pack,” she said of Noriega. “My teammates Eva and Kirsten, they like to start from the back and move forward. And they end up negative-splitting on courses like state. ..

I think it is pretty interesting how different we all race, but we end up getting to the same place at the end.”

They’d like to get to places that last season’s team was not able to go, since there was no postseason in the delayed and abbreviated spring outing. That team, with senior standouts now at the Division I level, Sameen Andar of Irvine and Ritika Singh Follow Us On Twitter & Instagram, Like Us On Facebook!

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Andy Richards

Sabrina Noriega

of USC, along with three exceptional juniors, Braganza, Shen and Kirsten Chan, certainly had potential.

“That was the strongest girls team — bar none — that we had to that point,” Gowen said. So how does this team compare in potential?

“It’s hard to evaluate because we never will know what last year’s team would have done. I’m counting chickens before we hatch, but this will be the strongest team we have taken to state, and I fully expect we will be at state.”

And should the Wildcats get there, they will get to measure themselves against the very best. They know which teams are the measuring sticks.

“Campolindo is a great team and they score really low all the time,” Braganza said. “Just to see my teammates racing against Ellie Buckley and their top runners. Me trailing behind her and my teammates less than 30 seconds behind me and probably a 30-second spread between the first four runners. It’s such an amazing feeling to be so close together and near the top. It’s a newer experience for Dougherty.”

Since there was no state meet last season, the motivation is great for returning varsity athletes like Richards.

“I wanted to taste what state would feel like and that looks like it is going to happen,” he said. “We had a lot of seniors leave so (fellow junior) Shane Badcock and I were looking for more responsibility this year. It’s a different year.”

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One thing’s for sure: No one will accuse the Dougherty Valley boys runners of being too serious.

“We’re very silly,” Richards said. “The only thing we take very seriously is racing. That’s it. We just joke around. It’s hard for us to be serious. When the race starts and the workout is going, we’re grinding. Every day, in and out, we’re moving. After that we are kind of just messing around. It’s the best way to be. Practice is a blast.”

As Gowen puts it, “the dynamics at practice are always entertaining.”

The Farmer Invitational in Hayward on Sept 11 provided the first semblance of a normal fall season, where Dougherty finished second to EBAL rival and NCS Division I power Dublin.

That was really our first cross country invitational that we had in a really long time,” Badcock said. “To me it was ‘We’re back here, we’re actually running cross country.’”

The consistency of the pack has been the key.

“We have a team where we don’t have any outstanding runners, but we are all really close together in times,” Badcock said.

“With that similarity, and the speed and the times, because we all are up there, because our team is so consistent, we’re able to qualify for some of those bigger meets.

“We have six guys … no, we have eight guys who are all really good,” Badcock said. “Six guys who are almost exactly together, and two more guys, freshmen who are new and are really fast.”

Badcock calls his team “six strong” and the Wildcats hope to capitalize on their depth in the postseason. They can see the potential ahead.

“These next few meets, EBAL and NCS are going to show all the other schools what Dougherty has, what we can do as a team and how we can compete,” Badcock said. “And then state, that is going to be the peak of our fitness. So that should be our best race of the season. We’re really excited to go to state this year, if we make it. We’re really looking forward to it.” ✪ Follow Us On Twitter & Instagram, Like Us On Facebook!

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Curron Borders

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T

he most slept-on team in the Sac-Joaquin Section can finally get some rest itself.

After outscoring opponents 402-122 in a stunning blitz of games, undefeated Antelope (9-0) has earned the No. 4 seed in the SJS Division II playoffs, and will enjoy a rest-filled bye week while awaiting the winner of No. 5 Whitney-Rocklin and No. 12 Inderkum-Sacramento.

Antelope is one of only seven Div. I-III Northern California teams with unblemished records, and cracked the SportStars’ NorCal Top 20 football rankings at No. 20 for the first time this season on Tuesday.

Until Antelope walloped Inderkum-Sacramento 35-6 on Oct. 15 to hand the Tigers their first conference defeat since 2012 (ending a 51-game streak), the Titans were barely on the radar.

Not much was expected of a team with a third head coach in three seasons, despite Antelope having made the playoffs in 11 straight seasons and won seven postseason games in the past five years.

You had better believe that Antelope knows about it.

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“There is definitely a chip on our shoulders,” Antelope junior running back Curron “Ronnie” Borders said. “Our friends, and even people in our families have said, ‘You are going to be garbage…you aren’t going to make the playoffs.’

“That chip is still there. We believe in ourselves and we don’t just want a league championship. We want more.”

Borders’ wish list is rarely unfulfilled.

He leads all Northern California backs with 1,987 yards through nine games and is second in the state with 32 touchdowns.

Not bad for a guy who was platooned as a lineman when he picked up football with the Antelope Jr. Titans in the sixth grade, and missed most of his freshman campaign on Antelope’s JV team when he suffered a concussion.

Considering he ran the ball just 24 times during Antelope’s COVID-shortened season in 2020, no-one could have predicted his meteoric rise a year later.

Not even first-year Titans head coach Mike Byerly.

“He works as hard as any kid I have ever coached,” Byerly said. “And even

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“There is definitely a chip on our shoulders. Our friends, and even people in our families have said, ‘You are going to be garbage … you aren’t going to make the playoffs.’”

— Antelope junior running back Curron “Ronnie” Borders Follow Us On Twitter & Instagram, Like Us On Facebook!

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though he’s only a junior, he is our leader. A year ago, I hardly even heard his voice. This year, as soon as he set his foot on the practice field, he didn’t settle for anything that was mediocre.”

Borders demands excellence in practice. If he doesn’t like post-meeting sound-offs (“clap, clap, clap Titans!”), he will call players back for another. If he spots a player walking on the actual playing field, he will require a conditioning penalty.

“They jog to get water now,” Byerly said. “Until you get over that white line, you aren’t able to walk, because Curron will be watching.

“That’s the kind of leader he is.”

Stellar play only increases your respect.

Borders exploded for 439 yards and five touchdowns in Antelope’s first two games, and has rushed for more than 150 yards in each of his last six contests. He only needed nine carries to run for 168 in a 48-7 shellacking of River Valley-Yuba City last week. He also caught a 45-yard touchdown pass.

The efforts have garnered the attention of San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Nevada, but Borders is still awaiting his first offer.

“My younger self probably wouldn’t believe (the production and the recruiting interests),” Borders said. “I didn’t have a lot of faith and trust in myself when I was younger.

“I think it was my height.”

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Borders is 5 foot, 7 inches and 185 pounds.

His father, Chance Borders, was an all-conference running back for Sierra College in 1989, and tragically died 18 years later, when Curron was just 2 years old.

Curron said his mother, Patrice Redick, is easily his biggest supporter, though the game itself provides a unique opportunity for tranquility.

“Some may see it as violent, but football is my peace,” Curron said. “I go to it a lot for really anything. When I am in a bad mood, football always makes me feel better.

“On a big run, it’s adrenaline at first, and I’m thinking about how to get past the next defender. But then I get into the end zone, and turn around and look at my team, and that to me is really peaceful.”

Big runs are Curron’s speciality. He’s bolted for at least 30 yards in seven games this year. The explosive plays are the product of Byerly’s potent spread run-pass option offense.

It sounds complicated, but its simplicity in design and execution has allowed the Titans to gain 3,843 yards this year.

Byerly breaks it down in finite detail below: “Teams will defend your run game with a variation of linebacker play and safety adjustments, which tells you what passing routes are open.”

“So you can read those players in conflict, like an outside backer forced to play the run, who has vacated a passing zone. You hit that zone until they

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Amir Pharms

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loosen up, and then you hit the running game.”

“Quarterback (Jasiah Bateman) has been working it steadily for so long, that he can read the D end or outside backer, and decide to give it to the RB, or pull and throw, or pull and run based on what he is seeing.”

“He is making that decision as the play is happening, so now the QB has a run, run or run-pass option, based on how the defender is reacting.”

“So it’s kind of a run-where-he-ain’t or throwwhere-he-ain’t play.”

Curron has erupted when given the chance, but Bateman’s quick thinking can’t be missed on film. He quickly audibles out of bad match-ups for the called play. Byerly admits most of those changes are ones he would make himself, if he had Bateman connected by earpiece.

It’s a system that requires superb execution in the middle of the field, and Byerly is lucky to have his three best players, Curron, Bateman and center Culby Perkins lined up in a row behind the ball. All of them are juniors.

Perkins is a rugby player with quick feet, and he appreciates the help of rapidly rising senior tackle Josh Moore (6-7, 240), who is starting to generate interest with his size and abilities.

Senior receivers Brandon Seetahal and Jordyn Saechao have helped keep defenders honest, and combine for 38 catches and seven touchdowns. They represent the bulk of Bateman’s production (58 of 85 for 885 yards and 12 touchdowns, three interceptions).

The Antelope defense has held four opponents to seven or less points this year, and is led by middle linebacker Elijah Moore, lineman Angelo Gay and Xavier Marez and defensive backs Amir Pharms and Christian Martinez.

“It’s a really great atmosphere,” Curron said. “Our bond with each other is what has kept us ahead.

“We work really hard. We always have great energy and we lift each other up.”

It’s a group that has been up for a while, even while the rest of us slept. ✪

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Claire Untalan, left, and Maddie Guarin

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Natalie Lau

St. Ignatius Volleyball Will Be A Serious Contender In The State Tournament — And It May Owe That To A Friday Night Team Meeting In Las Vegas Story and Photos by Chace Bryson

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or the St. Ignatius High girls volleyball team, the season’s lowest point began on a Friday on its home campus in San Francisco.

It ended seven days later in Las Vegas.

On the evening of Sept. 17, senior Natalie Lau remembers the mood of the team as it returned to the hotel after a miserable 0-2 start to pool play at the ultra competitive Durango Fall Classic Tournament.

“It was rough,” the setter said.

Prior to leaving for Las Vegas, St. Ignatius had suffered convincing 3-0 home losses to both Marin Catholic-Kentfield and Archbishop Mitty-San Jose. Marin Catholic has been NorCal’s top-ranked team all season, and Mitty has shifted back and forth between No. 2 and 3. The two opponents easily represented the toughest competition the team had faced so far — and the Wildcats were able to top 18 points in just one of the six sets.

Then two days after the loss to Mitty, the team was in Vegas and suffered straight-set losses to Centennial-Las Vegas and Village Christian-Sun Valley. Seven days. Four matches. Zero wins in the last 10 sets played.

Upon returning to the hotel, St. Ignatius met as a team. It was time to circle the wagons.

“It started with the idea of ‘We came all this way…’” Lau Always More To Read at SportStarsMag.com

said. “And we reminded each other that we came to play for each other to have fun. We had stressed ourselves out and we needed to get back to that.”

The following day, St. Ignatius went 4-0 and won the Classic Division title. They didn’t drop a single set.

“Many of the girls on this team our seniors,” senior outside hitter Claire Untalan said. “We told each other in the hotel that we didn’t have many tournaments like this left, and that we can leave it all out there. We can stand our ground.

“The next day, we went out there and just went for it. It’s probably one of my favorite tournament experiences ever.”

Fortunately for the Wildcats, not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

The team returned home and reeled off five straight West Catholic Athletic League wins, starting with a win over a St. Francis-Mountain View team that’s been ranked among NorCal’s Top 5 teams throughout the season. The victory game in four sets, which included erasing a 10-point deficit in one of them.

Mitty snapped the win streak at nine on Oct. 7, but not before the Wildcats took a set off of them.

“Vegas was no joke,” St. Ignatius coach Jen Curtin said. “It really was that point that changed things for them. After four straight losses to high caliber teams, we all asked the question, Follow Us On Twitter & Instagram, Like Us On Facebook!

Skye Smolinski

‘If they’re high caliber teams, then where does that put us?

And where do we want to be?’”

One can’t blame the Wildcats for needing that jolt. The season was undoubtedly going to present a steep learning curve after the program had an entire year wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2021 free-for-all spring season was different from county to county, city to city and school district to school district. In the WCAL, which includes schools in three different counties, things were especially tricky. While basketball got a season in, and even got to experience Central Coast Section playoffs, volleyball did not.

The spring season for the WCAL’s San Francisco schools of St. Ignatius, Sacred Heart Cathedral and Riordan consisted of two to three outdoor matches on turf fields.

“When we finally got word that we could get back in the gym, it meant so much,” Lau said.

That initial gym time came over the summer. It was before organized workouts and tryouts, but even then Lau saw the potential for the program.

“It was really just an open gym set-up, but we were havFollow Us On Twitter & Instagram, Like Us On Facebook!

ing some really competitive rallies,” the setter said. “It didn’t matter what ages we were playing with, the competition was great.”

Untalan, whose primary sport is basketball, spent most of that spring and summer away from volleyball and traveling with her hoops club.

When she returned in late summer, she was one of nearly 40 girls at varsity tryouts. And that’s when she realized the impact of the lost volleyball season.

“There weren’t any cuts during the COVID season because they just wanted kids to be able to play,” Untalan said. “So suddenly there were all these girls at tryouts and it occurred to me that even our most experienced players hadn’t competed together since we were sophomores.”

Untalan’s big concern was chemistry, but that didn’t last long.

“That ended up being one of our strengths,” she said, “just how fast we built that cohesiveness and began playing for each other. That’s my favorite thing about playing with this group.”

Curtin credited the quick melding to a number of factors.

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Claire Untalan

Most importantly, though, was the leadership of her seniors. Lau, Untalan, Hannah Angsten and Maddie Guarin are the four seniors who played varsity during the Wildcats’ last full season, which included a 16-20 record and 2-8 finish in the WCAL. “We knew we’d have that core to build around,” the coach said. “The juniors were the ones that really impressed us. Our libero, our main defensive specialist and our opposite hitter are all juniors. Then we had some sophomores with some raw talent who showed a lot of maturity. … All those elements on the court together with the seniors taking charge, it has made for a really good mix.”

Among those juniors who have helped fill the gaps, Curtin mentioned libero Reanna Yadao and outside hitter Skye Smolinski. Senior middle blocker Angelina Hemingway was also noted as a breakout player who has helped the squad really take off.

“Angelina was someone who started off not playing in every game,” Curtin said. “But she has just stepped up huge and become a real threat up there.”

Since the Vegas turnaround, St. Ignatius has won 17 of 19 matches with both losses coming to

26

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November 2021

Mitty just two days apart. After the WCAL loss on Oct. 7, the teams met again in the Stockton Classic championship match with the Monarchs prevailing in three sets: 25-21, 23-25, 15-10.

The Wildcats’ hot finish, and their two head-to-head wins over St. Francis, earned them the No. 2 seed in the CCS Open Division tournament. After a first-round win over Los Gatos, St. Ignatius entered November with a 25-7 overall record and ranked No. 4 in all of NorCal. Regardless of how the CCS tournament plays out, the team is guaranteed a CIF Northern Regional playoff berth. That field will be set on Sunday, Nov. 7.

At some point, there’s a real chance they’ll be lining up against Mitty once again.

“We just need to change our mindset a little bit,” Lau said. “At this point it’s a mental game.

We definitely have the talent to (beat them) for sure. … I know we believe we can win, but we have to want it just that much more.”

If their Friday night in Vegas taught this team anything, it’s that a change in mindset is possible.

What else is possible? The Wildcats are about to find out. ✪

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