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On their way to the championship, Campolindo won their quarterfinal match at home over Terra Linda handily, 25-15, 25-18, 25-15. Campolindo came out strong from the first point of the first set, a kill by senior outside hitter Mary Vaccaro, they won 25-15. In the second set the teams traded points. A forceful kill by Vaccaro gave Campolindo a 15-14 from which they never looked back. The Lady Cougars won the set 25-18. Campolindo made quick work of the third and final set, ending it 25-15.
Vaccaro, the DFAL Most Valuable Player and All-American, commented on the game's importance in their quest to win NCS: "I definitely feel a lot of momentum, we're all very pumped up, we've become really close as a team coming into playoffs, so hopefully that will allow us to hopefully get a good ride to the [finals]," she said. "We need to perform and work our hardest every single game and hopefully we'll come out on top."
The Cougars advanced to play Analy the following Wednesday, November 17 and played as Vaccaro anticipated. They won a tightly contested match in five sets, 20-25, 25-16, 25-16, 24-26, 15-13. With that win they advanced to the final, in which they met Sir Francis Drake (34-5).
In the final, Campolindo dominated the first two sets, 25-12 and 25-13. In the third set, however, the Lady Cougars fell behind, a rare occurrence for them, prompting head coach Scott Bishop to call a time out. Out of the time out, Campolindo went on a 10-1 run to end the match and claim the trophy for the first time since 2005. Vaccaro had 13 kills and senior middle hitter Chandler Moore had six in Campolindo's rout of Sir Francis Drake.
Bishop had made a bold prediction about the team's chances: "if we perform at the level that we're capable of, I see us going all the way," he said, and that they did.
Despite being ranked third in NCS and one of the favorites to move on in the tournament, Miramonte lost a tightly contested game at home against Moreau Catholic in the quarterfinals, 25-17, 24-26, 25-14, 23-25, 16-14. In the fifth set, Moreau Catholic took the lead from the start, but Miramonte wouldn't go down easily, they fought back and eventually took the lead 13-11. However, Moreau Catholic went on a 5-1 run to win the fifth set and the match.
Junior outside hitter Audrey Breitwieser and senior outside hitter Kirsten Rutledge had 22 and 19 kills, respectively. Junior setter Sarah Vaccaro had 48 assists and three aces.
Coach Shannon Ross commented on the game as a great example of her team's perseverance, despite the loss. "I thought we did a great job of fighting back during the match against Moreau," she said. "We lost the first and third games by quite large margins and came back in the second and fourth games with wins; the fifth game was a toss up and the girls fought until the very last point."
Acalanes' season ended after Sir Francis Drake defeated them on their way to the finals; they lost in three sets, 25-15, 25-12, 25-20, ending their NCS hopes at the quarterfinals on November 13.
Senior captain Natalie Chan commented on the loss and noted her team's improvement over the course of the season. "We played [Sir Francis Drake] before and lost really badly, but this time we played better as a team," she said. "For the most part, we were all happy with how we played; we knew this wasn't going to be an easy team, as they are seeded second overall."
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA