The Los Gatos High girls volleyball team knew it would still have at least one more match to play after an opening round loss to St. Ignatius in the Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs on Nov. 2.
That’s because any team that made the elite CCS Open Division earned a berth into the CIF State NorCal Tournament. The No. 13 seed Wildcats (25-8) had a week off from the SI match to the NorCal opener at No. 4 seed Lowell of San Francisco on Nov. 9, and they made the most of it, rolling to victory in three sets.
Game scores were 25-18, 25-14, 25-18. Los Gatos plays No. 5 seed Monte Vista of Danville in a quarterfinal contest Thursday at 6pm. Wildcats coach Brynja Thompson said the loss to SI was a blessing in disguise because the team used the following week to recover and hone in on things in practice.
“The loss was really hard for the girls because they’re super competitive and losses don’t sit well with them, but they understand you have to suffer through losses and learn from them,” Thompson said. “Losses are only mistakes if you don’t learn from them.
“It was a good week to recover, learn and implement new things and I think we’re currently a better team because of what we’ve done in the past week. These girls are so hungry for their next couple of steps, and they’re chomping at the bit to get on the court again and compete.”
Despite Lowell being the higher seeded team, Los Gatos made short work of the San Francisco City Section champion. Siena Adams did her usual solid job at setter, but also excelled defensively. Emily Gouldrup worked with her teammates to defend Lowell’s middle attack—“That was pretty much neutralized,” Thompson said—while Hannah Slover scored a lot of points on her serve.
“Hannah had some amazing serves,” Thompson said. “She hits a heavy ball and they were coming extremely fast at the other team.”
More than anything, Thompson said the players once again worked well together, having a play-for-each-other mentality that permeates the squad. Although the Wildcats will enter as the underdogs against a tough Monte Vista team, the reality is if they play at their best, they can probably beat anyone in the field.
Top-seed Oak Ridge of El Dorado Hills lost to Monte Vista in a tournament on Oct. 9, while Monte Vista lost to Lowell on Sept. 18 and lost to St. Ignatius on Oct. 9. It’s all about which team elevates its game at the right time.
“Being in NorCals, you’re in a rush because you don’t know much about the other team going into it, so we’ll really have to focus on ourselves and do things on our side correctly,” Thompson said. “Then it’s Game 2, Game 3, when you start to make the adjustments and our team is good at making adjustments. From what I hear, Monte Vista is a great team, and the girls are looking forward to the challenge.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com or (831) 886-0471, ext. 3958.
