The Piedmont High School girls volleball team swept Clayton Valley in the second round of the North Coast Section Division 3 playoffs on Oct. 31 at Binks Gymnasium, 25-14, 25-10, 26-24. The win advances the third-seeded Highlanders to the semifinals on Nov. 4 at No. 2 Justin-Siena-Napa at 7 p.m.
This is the deepest Piedmont has advanced in the playoffs since the 2008 team made it to the championship match in the Division 4 bracket where it fell to Marin Cahtolic. The Highlanders have never won an NCS title in girls volleyball.
“I was minus-two years old,” libero Allyson Huynh said when told about the 2008 team. “It means the world to me that our team can make it this far, especially as a junior on a junior-dominated team.”
Piedmont hasn’t dropped a set in two NCS playoff games. Is that good?
“We’re insane,” Huynh said. “I think today was the best we’ve ever played. I am just so proud of how cohesive we played as a team, our energy was great. We really do want to win this thing.”
The No. 11 Eagles came in off of a sweep of their own over No. 6 Sonoma Valley. They weren’t able to really get their offense going until the third set. The first set was close most of the way until Izara Dando took over the serve with a 15-13 lead. She went on a nine-point run to almost close out the set.
Dando had her own kill during the run and Olivia Stevens finished off two other points. Carina Vora and Sofia Meyer also recorded kills.
Dando has been playing more middle blocker of late as Charlotte Bailey has been limited by a knee injury.
“It’s means a lot to get more playing time so I want to take every moment I can and do the best I can for the team,” Dando said. “On the outside in oppo, it’s definitely different. I think I like middle a lot because you can kind of take control and it’s a lot of fun.”
Said Huynh, “Izara is one of my favorite people. She’s such a spark on the court and you can always trust that she’s going to get a kill or a block and makes my job so much easier knowing that she’s on the court.”
Piedmont took control early in the second set, building a 5-1 lead immediately and eventually growing that to 17-8. Lucia Dorsey had a pair of kills in the early going and Mia Bechtel had a pair of aces during a three-point run as server. Sarina Hill came off the bench to serve five consecutive points. She had an ace and Dorsey, Bailey and Emilia Angulo had kills during the run.
Vora finished the set out with an ace.
Clayton Valley rallied in the third set and took early leads of 3-1 and 5-3. Carter Owens-McClain blocked a Maika Ting spike attempt to get things going for the Eagles. She, Olivia Trinidad, and Caitlin Connors had spikes for points as well.
The Highlanders took a brief 6-5 lead on an ace by Hill and a kill by Angulo. But Clayton Valley retook the lead. Connors had a block and Cecilia Gonzalez had an ace to make it 10-8 in favor of the Eagles. Owens-McClain blocked another Ting kill to make it 12-9.
That was the high-water mark. The teams battled until Piedmont took the lead at 20-17 thanks to a three-point run. Dorsey had a beautiful one-hand soft kill.
Again, Clayton Valley kept fighting, tying the score at 21-21 on an Owens-McClain kill. She tied the score again at 24-24 on yet another block.
But an Eagle spike into the net gave the Highlanders the lead and Stevens got the kill to clinch the match.
“It feels really, really great,” Ting said. “Looking forward, I think it’s definitely going to be much more of a challenge because we’ll gonna end up facing some higher-ranked teams. I’m really excited to see how far we can go and how much we can develop as a team together.”
Former Piedmont coach Mariah Cardenas came to the match, and several players were hugging her afterwards.
“I’m so happy to see her,” Ting said. “She was my club coach and she definitely developed me fundamentally. She was so, so important to how I’ve gotten to be where I am and I was so glad to see how she showed up for us.”
Piedmont has not faced Justin-Siena in at least 23 years. The teams did play in the 2002 NCS Division 4 semifinal, with the Braves winning and going on to win the championship.