CAMPOLINDO
 
    Even with a final record of 29-10 last season, there was something lacking in the performance of the Campolindo team. With a 23-6 record so far this season, head coach David Chen agrees with that assessment: “The first year varsity players bring a lot of depth and skills along with another year of experience for our returners who brought more maturity and understanding that has allowed us in practice to be more competitive, which has taken us to a different level this year. Our leaders are trying to create something unique with what they liked as well as avoiding things they did not like.”

    This is a mature roster with five seniors, eight juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen. “Even our freshmen are mature though they don’t get as many opportunities to play,” Chen said. “We believe in their skills and early in the season, against Monte Vista, one of our freshmen, Aven Brusco played some big minutes and made some really big kills, so we feel comfortable putting them in if we need to do so.”

    The top five scorers on the team are two seniors, Mia Walloch (228 kills), and Ava Rogers (114 kills), two juniors, Talia Rosenblat (86 kills) and Dior Duru (96 kills), and sophomore Hanna Raczynska (190 kills). “We’re led by Mia who has been anchoring the offensive end, especially as a pin hitter but we’re a more balanced team that allows us to be a threat in multiple ways and Hanna now carries herself like an upperclassman which is very refreshing. The middle blockers have been very strong up front as well, led by Ava, Talia, and Olivia Britton. They are competing for two positions so that is something for us to figure out.”

    Besides the play up front, another new weapon has been the team’s serving game which has had 188 aces so far. “That part of the game has really helped us,” Chen said. “Sophia Wilson has been a really big weapon for us along with the other 12 players that have had aces this season.” 
    Raczynska and Walloch have also been very effective in the back line being the third and fourth leading diggers behind Sierra Worster (201) and Amelia Knutson (179).

    As the team’s setter, Knutson leads the team with 739 assists followed by Clementine Damon-Espinas and Worster. Worster is the team’s libero but there is good depth in the back with Kendra Moon, Evey Uziel, Damon-Espinas and Katherine Deng all listed as defensive specialists.

    Campolindo has had a very tough non-league schedule early in the season by design. “We’ll take a beating to see how we compare against the top-notch teams, determining our strengths and figuring out where our weaknesses were and how much work we needed to put into those areas,” Chen said.

    As the team is concluding league play, connections remain a real concern for Chen: “It's the kind of connections with the setter, hitter, or passer and ideally there's the unspoken feel of positioning on a court, moving without speaking which we’re always working on and that’s not an easy thing. We’re just going to do our best to finish strong in the regular season.”

MIRAMONTE
 
    This has been a turnaround year for Miramonte. After an 8-16 record last year, and an opening match loss against Benicia, Miramonte has won 16 of their next 21 games and is 8-0 in league play.

    With 10 seniors and juniors, one sophomore and four freshmen, it’s a combination that has served head coach Leslie Ray well and she is expecting more from the team down the road: “It's really a rebuilding year for us. In our last two seasons, we were in a phase of trying to get better and be more competitive. I knew we were going to have a number of younger kids on our varsity and JV teams. We’ve built team chemistry during the ride, and I told the team they were going to see gradual growth.”

    Freshman Cindy Guo, junior Rory Gaarder-Wang and senior Mifay Liu have been the leaders on the front line. “Cindy has been a starter on the outside, putting balls away for us,” Ray said. “Rory has been doing a great job in the middle and on the right side and Mifay who made the all-tournament team at the San Lorenzo Championship alongside Sena Hens who was our MVP. Another freshman, Georgia Anderson has shown some dominance in the middle but is still learning the tempo and speed of the game but is still doing an awesome job. Gianna Caspari is one of the smartest hitters on the team. She plays big and contributes a lot defensively when I need to swing her to the front row.”

    Junior co-captain Maddie Yun and another freshman Lucy Targonski are the team’s setters. “Lucy also plays in the front row on the right side and sets for us when she’s in the back row,” Ray said. Junior co-captain Sena Hens is probably one of the best liberos in the area.”
    For Ray, it was more than just improving the team play on the court: “The culture of the team has totally shifted and the support from our seniors and juniors has been amazing, taking the younger players under their wings, providing them with feedback, and letting them know what we require at Miramonte volleyball.”

    With the addition of a freshman team, Ray sees Miramonte as the place to be: “I want people to come to Miramonte and know that we are an academic driven school but that we are also going to make sure we’re competitive and will be setting us up for the future. We’ve also started a Mini-Mats program where we bring in third through fifth-graders on Saturdays and have our freshman, JV, and varsity players coach them and that builds up the culture and that’s when winning starts.”

ACALANES 

    After starting the season off with an eight-game winning streak, Acalanes still has a very respectable 12 and 7 record. “We’re a really strong team, and we're definitely figuring out what works, working on chemistry, and then seeing because we have so many good pieces where those pieces should fall, so that we're super successful as a team altogether,” head coach Haley Walsh said.

    The Lady Dons roster is comprised of only seniors and juniors: “We kept everyone that was on varsity last year, because we had 10 juniors last year,” Walsh said. “We feel like everyone can challenge each other, and everyone has a lot to give. In terms of experience, some of our seniors have been on varsity for three years, so they definitely know the ropes, and are trying to show the juniors what to do when they become the seniors on next year’s team. This is the expectation of playing on varsity.”

    The JV team, comprised of freshmen and sophomores that Walsh is counting on for next year, has only lost one league game so far this year.
    There is a lot of size and depth on the front line for Acalanes, according to Walsh: “The leader on the front line is co-captain Piper Coy. She has been instrumental in the performance of our offense as well as generally leading the team in digs. Against Los Lomas, she got 15 kills and 23 digs. Ella Chong has come into her own offensively and been very successful up front. Kylah Fox on the right side missed some time but is coming back and will be another integral part of our offense as she was at the start of the season.”

    The middle blockers have been co-captain Sophia Terry and Devyn Murphy. “Sophia and Devyn have really solidified that position,” Walsh said. “They’ve done a really good job of slowing down because our league has such heavy hitters, giving our defense a chance to dig the ball so that we can continue to convert and that’s been really helpful.”

    Seniors Sydney Graves and Christina Hageboeck are the team’s two setters and are both working to contribute more at the end line with their serves.

    Senior Stella Larkin is the starting libero and is backed up by Rena Liu. “We’ve also been experimenting with using kind of a modified double libero situation because you can’t have two liberos so we’re trying to do a similar scheme without having to use two different jerseys,” Walsh said. “Stella has been working very hard on solidifying our server seed and has been really consistent this season, along with leading the team is aces in a few games.”

    Playing in a competitive division is very challenging for all of the teams. “This year is really anyone's game,” Walsh said. “A majority of our teams are going to end up in division one for NCS, which is pretty cool that our league is so highly regarded.”

    Pointing to the playoffs, Walsh knows what the team needs to do to be successful: “We're a team that starts off really strong, and we do a good job of getting our opponents out of their system. It's the last five points that we really need to work on in solidifying our matches. There are matches where we’ve gotten into the 20’s but have not capitalized in those situations. So, it’s a matter of working on making sure that we play hard the entire set to close out our opponents and not just the first 15 or 20 points.”