Open Division: Cathedral Catholic (42-0) (Southern Section) d. Saint Francis, Mountain View (34-1) (Central Coast Section), 25-21, 25-16, 25-23, Saturday, 6:30 p.m.

Forty-two (42) victories.

ZERO losses.

Just one SET dropped all season, despite playing one of the toughest schedules in the nation.

The Cathedral Catholic Dons had lofty expectations coming into the 2022 fall campaign. They fulfilled them all.

After sweeping previously-undefeated Saint Francis of Mountain View on Saturday for the CIF State Open Division title, to cap a season in which the Dons also: 1) won three national events, including the Las Vegas Durango Fall Classic; 2) won the San Diego Section Open Division title; and 3) won the Southern California Regionals in the Open Division; and 4) unanimously won the mythical national championship; there’s only one thing left to say about this team:

Mission Accomplished.

“What a fantastic way to top off our season,” Cathedral Catholic coach Juliana Conn said. “There was a lot on the line today beyond state…our streak, sending 10 seniors to college. It was beautiful to see them fighting and knowing that it meant more than just a volleyball match.”

***

California has been hosting volleyball state championships since 1978, when Highland of Bakersfield defeated Reedley three sets to one.

Never, before Saturday, had two undefeated teams met for an Open Division State Championship.

If Cathedral Catholic was going to complete its dream season, the Dons would have to earn it.
In Saint Francis, the team from San Diego had a most worthy opponent. The Lancers, under first-year head coach Lake Merchen, had not played the kind of state-hopping schedule that Cathedral Catholic had, but their resume included wins over state-ranked Newport Harbor, San Clemente, Branson, Monte Vista, and San Ramon Valley, as well as six wins – SIX! – over Archbishop Mitty, the team with the most state championships, by a wide margin, in CIF State history.

Last November, Mitty, which won the first two Open Division titles in 2016 and 2017; made its first appearance since. Mitty took on an undefeated Marymount team, which is on the shortlist for the best teams ever in high school volleyball. Marymount won, 25-11, 25-5, 25-14. The Monarchs were unable to meet the moment.

On Saturday, the spotlight was not too bright for young Saint Francis, with four juniors in the starting lineup. The Lancers proved they belonged by challenging Cathedral Catholic in every phase.

“This team does a great job of handling what’s in front of them and not letting the moment get too big,” Merchen said. “When the lights shine brighter so do we. We proved that tonight. Not every point went our way, but that’s what happens when you play an amazing team like Cathedral Catholic.”

Saint Francis made Cathedral Catholic sweat. They made them take timeouts!

“They stressed me a lot!” Conn exclaimed. “They were awesome and I told the girls they’re in the same shoes. They have not lost. They’re on a good streak with good players and a good game plan.”

“We were just prepared,” Conn added. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We knew a lot of the battle was going to be against ourselves. To the last point, they did a good job.”

***

Saint Francis played aggressively from the start, challenging the Cathedral Catholic back row by swinging away rather than playing timidly and tipping. Senior setter Havannah Hoeft set all of her hitters. Taylor Williams, Samantha Franco, and especially Erin Curtis, with four early kills; came through as the Lancers built a 10-7 lead in Game 1.

Cathedral Catholic was up for the challenge. The Dons are a competitive bunch. Early in the first set, senior OH Cate Schnell’s attack got rejected, with extreme prejudice, by Hoeft. On the very next point, Schnell was the one administering the pain with a revenge block of her own.

***

Schnell, who stands 6-1 and has signed with Tennessee, defended and attacked out of the back row for most of Cathedral Catholic’s season. The Dons have overwhelming depth on the left side, led by Stanford signee Julia Blyashov, a four-year starter, and the team’s undisputed leader; Milan Bayless, a hammer, headed to Colgate; and Kapi Coleman, a supreme athlete, and reigning state 300-meter champion. That left a back row role for Schnell, who became a terror attacking from behind the 10-foot line.

That’s what happens when you have a roster of 20, where all are capable.

“Everybody accepted their role,” Conn said. “In the beginning, we talked about it. I told them, ‘We all know you can be a six-rotation player on any team but now we’re all together  and we have to handle it well or it can go south.’ From Day 1 we all knew it’s deep and we’re going to fight it off in practice.”

“During practice, when we get to scrimmage against our own teammates, that’s some of the best competition we’re going to have,” Schnell said. “We like to go 110% and challenge each other and that pushes us to another level.  Yes, when the games happen, the other team is going to play their best, but we don’t worry about the other team after all the hard work we put in.”

Late in the San Diego Section championship match versus Torrey Pines, Blyashov suffered a bad ankle sprain. Though she tried to rehabilitate the ankle enough to get back on the court, she couldn’t go. Cathedral Catholic won four state tournament matches – over state No. 11 Lakewood, No. 6 Torrey Pines, No. 3 Mira Costa, and No. 2 Saint Francis – without its best all-around player and leader.

“Ju went down and everyone was super worried,” Conn said. “My attitude was, ‘OK let’s get the next person ready to play.’ That was a highlight of the season, knowing that even if someone had a bad game someone else was going to step in and do a good job.”

Schnell was that next person on the left. She was ready when called upon and proved it with that revenge block.

***

Another person forced to do more after Blyashov’s injury was right side Noemie Glover. The 6-1 lefty, who has signed with Oregon, is a physical marvel with a vicious arm swing. She’d been an afterthought at times for much of the season, because setter Amanda Saeger had SO MANY options, from Blyashov, Bayless, and Coleman on the left to Schnell, and Niki Egan in the back row to Jenna Hanes, Ryleigh Patterson and Mia Compass in the middle.
  
“When Ju went down, we naturally turned to Noemie,” Conn explained. “’ Now it’s you; you’re going to get fed a lot of balls.’ I think she took that responsibility with the same energy and just did it. It made Amanda feel very comfortable that she could go there if we were in trouble.”

***

Down 11-8 in the first, Cathedral Catholic was in a spot of trouble. Saeger took a nice Coleman pass and fed Glover over her head. The senior delivered her second kill of the set to get the Dons within two.

Hanes, a 6-3 junior middle committed to Michigan, piled on with a monster block, followed by three more Glover kills in succession, as Cathedral Catholic took a 13-11 lead.

Saint Francis recovered to tie, thanks to a middle kill from Faith Crouch and Hoeft’s ace, but Glover’s sixth kill in the past seven Cathedral Catholic points put the Dons ahead once more.

A service error knotted the score one final time before Hanes put Cathedral Catholic on top for good with a 2-ball attack out of the middle.

***

Hanes played her freshman season at Rancho Bernardo High School for her mother, Kara Hanes, a former member of the U.S. Women’s National Team and an All-American at UCLA. When Kara Hanes left the school to take the head coaching position at Del Norte, Jenna moved on to Cathedral Catholic. She had to sit out her sophomore year but made her presence felt early this season when she dominated the net on her way to MVP honors at Durango.

Now, here she was, on the biggest stage making her presence felt with touches on every Saint Francis swing and devastating offense when set.

***

Two Saint Francis hitting errors – there simply was no room around Central Catholic’s massive block without trying to be too perfect – two impressive Bayless kills, terrific defense from sophomore libero Maya Evens and a Hanes/Saeger block were all part of Cathedral Catholic’s 6-0 run, the second streak of five or more after the Dons went down 11-8.

That’s the thing about Cathedral Catholic: the Dons keep coming after you. It’s relentless. You think you’re playing well, and you are, but look up and find yourself trailing, 20-14.

“That’s a bigger block than we’ve seen all year,” said Curtis. “We were just trying to swing hard and heavy through it.”

Cathedral Catholic grew its advantage to seven, 24-17, benefiting from ace serves from Dakota Conway and Saeger, before Saint Francis rattled off four straight to make things interesting. Curtis had her fifth kill of the set and an ace during the run. 24-21 was as close as Saint Francis would get. On the Lancers’ next swing, Bayless and Glover flanked MB Ryleigh Patterson for a definitive triple block that ended the first set.

Game 2 started with an exchange of blocks, Patterson and Glover in tandem for Cathedral Catholic, junior MB Sacha Touma for Saint Francis. Glover followed with a kill and soon the Dons were ahead 6-2. Saint Francis got a side out when Hoeft fed Crouch for a kill and Williams followed with three straight aces to knot the set at 6-6.

The teams played close for a few points, with Bayless and Glover scoring for Cathedral Catholic, countered by Curtis and Williamson the other side, until a Hanes/Glover block started Cathedral Catholic on another of its patented runs. This run of six, which was sparked at the net by Hanes and in the back row by Egan, took a competitive 11-10 set and turned it into a 17-10 Cathedral Catholic runaway.

“How did that happen?” Saint Francis’ players must have been wondering, given how well they were competing.

Hanes had two more kills as Cathedral Catholic maintained its advantage, then gave way to Patterson, a Lafayette College commit, who had a block and two impressive kills to get the Dons close to finishing out the set. Evens made some great digs and Saeger fed Hanes on set point to give Cathedral Catholic a two-set advantage heading to the third.

Saint Francis was at its most competitive in the third set. The Lancers were fueled by their defense. Williams, Hoeft, Curtis, and Jaemysen Martin all made eye-popping saves to keep rallies alive.

None was more impressive, however than junior Whitney Wallace. The Saint Francis libero, daughter of Archbishop Mitty head coach Jon Wallace, was EVERYWHERE. She stared down Cathedral Catholic’s big hitters time and again and dug their thunderous attacks right to target, giving her Lancers many more scoring opportunities.

As a result, Saint Francis led, 5-3, early on, 16-15 midway through, and was tied, 21-21, with just a few points yet to play.

Schnell and Glover scored in succession, aided by more strong defense from Evens, to put Cathedral Catholic two points from the sweep. Williams pulled Saint Francis within one on an off-speed swing through the block, a point that featured three indescribable Wallace digs.

“Defensively tonight we were incredible,” Merchen said. “Whitney was a phenomenal defender. It seemed like every time they hit a ball and it went anywhere near her she was this force that was not letting the ball go down.”

Glover responded with Saint Francis’ threat to tie with a double exclamation point kill for match point. Williams answered again to make it 24-23 Dons.

That set up the championship swing for Hanes. The junior who finished with a team-high 14 kills and match-high six blocks, did not miss the block on her final swing, but the ball found a spot near the net that no Lancer could reach.

The state title…everything…belonged to Cathedral Catholic!

“Even though we started behind we found the energy and the volleyball calm that we knew how to play and grabbed on to it and did a good job all three games,” Conn said.

The state and national championships came just over a year after Marymount knocked out the Dons in the Southern California Regional final on its way to an undefeated season and national championship.

“After the loss last year we came back very motivated,” Blyashov said. “We knew we needed to stay focused every single game and never get comfortable. We also had so much fun along the way. It was so awesome that we were able to do it, especially for the 10 seniors right now.”

The state title was No. 6 all-time for Cathedral Catholic and second for Conn, the eighth-year coach who first won in Division II in 2016.

There’s no comparison between the two titles, Conn said.

“Winning Open is really hard,” she admitted. “This was one in a million. When I saw my lineup and saw who was at the school I thought, “Oh my gosh we can do this!” 

Saint Francis competed so well despite the loss, something its head coach immediately recognized.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my kids and how incredibly hard they worked this season and how hard they had to work to get to this moment,” Merchen said. “You guys handled everything that was thrown at you this year with so much grace; with so much pride in yourselves and your school. I’m incredibly lucky to be a part of a program with kids who are not only amazing at volleyball but kids who give so much love and support to each other, the community, and your coaches.”

Williams led the way for Saint Francis with 15 kills. Curtis had 10 kills and eight digs. Hoeft contributed 30 assists and 13 digs. Wallace dug up 16 balls. Crouch had two kills and five blocks. Touma and Franco had four kills apiece.

“I was trying to get hitters 1-on-1,” Hoeft said. “When [Glover] wasn’t in we worked to set the outside.”

“Going in we knew they have a big block in the middle but they spread their blockers out a lot,” Merchen explained. “We wanted to exploit what we saw on film…run the bic a lot…run the middles…try to reverse the flow in good pass situations… I think we did a good job of that tonight. Our big hitters were everywhere tonight and we got a lot of good production from everybody.”

And yet, previously-undefeated Saint Francis lost in three sets. That’s a testament to just how much better Cathedral Catholic was than any other team in the state and most likely the nation.

Consider this: Blyashov could not play and the Dons still swept an undefeated team for the state title.

Consider this: Coleman, a potent outside, played sparingly, and Compas, who earned All-Tournament honors at Durango, did not play at all and Cathedral Catholic still swept an undefeated team for the state title.

That’s how overwhelmingly talented this group is.

That’s how overwhelmingly talented this group was

“We have the best team,” Blyashov said. “It was so easy to be happy and celebrate with them.”

“I am so lucky to coach so many good players when other high schools have 1-2 good players,” Conn said. “We knew our offense was phenomenal and so long as we could pass we had hitters coming from everywhere. It has always been a theme of this team that people don’t know who to block. Everyone can hit the ball really hard and today was no different.”

Glover complemented Hanes’ big night with 13 kills and five blocks of her own.

“Noemi went off and completely got them on their heels, which helped everyone else,” Conn said.

Glover, in many ways, catalyzed the victory with her early spate of kills.

“We thrive off of a good hit,” Glover said. “Being the spark leads to multiple good plays.”

Bayless chipped in with nine kills on 22 swings. Evens had 16 digs. Saeger contributed 36 assists and two aces.

“I knew it was going to be a long season keeping them focused and ready to play the next match,” Conn said.

“The whole thing was a treat to be a part of.”

“It all came together.”