Girls volleyball: JV callup provides spark for Marin Academy in playoffs
Freshman outside hitter Sierra Chang played the entire regular season on Marin Academy’s JV team before being called up to varsity for the postseason.
That move paid dividends for coach Craig Wong as Chang helped key a turnaround that saw the Wildcats storm back from a big deficit in the second set to claim a 14-25, 27-25, 25-13, 25-20 victory against No. 13 Albany in the first round of the North Coast Section Division II playoffs on Wednesday night.
Fourth-seeded MA (20-10) gets another home game at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the quarterfinals against St. Mary’s (24-11).
The Wildcats dug themselves a sizable hole against Albany (23-15) after a tentative, disjointed start saw them drop the first set and trail by eight points in the second set. Albany, which defeated Marin Academy 2-1 at a tournament on Aug. 24, came out on fire and played with confidence.
Trailing 19-11, Marin Academy got the side out it needed then Chang went to work behind the service line. MA won the next seven points on her serve – getting two kills each from middle blocker Muriel Harris and outside hitter Katie Murphy – to pull level at 19-19.
“It’s incredible to have a player [Chang] come up with that much confidence,” Wong said. “I think that’s a lot of credit to the JV team and the season they had. We were undefeated in league. Regardless of the level, if you’re having success, you’re starting to build confidence. She walked out there and played with confidence and kind of a looseness and a joy.”
Chang’s first action as a varsity player came in a five-set win against rival University in Saturday’s Bay Counties League championship game. The Wildcats had dropped seven consecutive matches against the Red Devils, last earning a win against them in 2021.
MA tied Albany at 20-20 on a huge block by Harris and caught the Cougars again at 23-23 after back-to-back kills by Reese Barber. The Wildcats grabbed the lead at 24-23 on a setter dump by Courtney Wang but were unable to close out the set on the next point.
Crucially, this allowed Albany’s Hannah Hajnal to serve again. Hajnal bedeviled MA with long service runs throughout the match to that point, including six aces. Hajnal’s seventh ace gave the Cougars a set point but MA fought it off thanks to a tip kill by Alegra Huck to make it 25-25.
Harris had a kill to put MA back in front 26-25 then played a massive role on the decisive point, taking a ball off the top of her head on a kill attempt by Albany midway through the point. The ball popped high into the air, allowing Molly Deason to run it down and keep the Wildcats in the point. Harris later ended the point with a kill to pull MA level at 1-1.
“I don’t even know how it got so high,” Harris said of the ball that hit her in the head. “But then Molly was right there to recover it for us.”
That play flipped the entire match as MA rolled out to a 10-1 lead in the third set – including another long service run by Chang – and never looked back en route to a 2-1 lead.
“I really want to say thanks to my JV coach, Maggie [Johnson],” Chang said. “She really taught me a lot about just going out there and forgetting your past mistakes and just keep going. I feel like I used to have a confidence issue. After being on her team, she taught me to forget the point you messed up on and just focus on the future.”
Suddenly the tentative moments and miscommunications that plagued MA early in the match melted away and the team played loose and free. All told, MA went on a 26-7 run spanning the second and third sets after being outscored 44-25 to start the match.
“It was just a lot of errors on our side and being able to clean that up – like we know we’re the better team if we’re able to execute and just put those silly errors away,” Harris said.
MA led throughout the fourth set but Albany stayed close, pulling within 18-16 after a pair of kills. The Wildcats got late kills from Chang, Huck, Barber, and Harris then wrapped up the match on a kill by Deason.
Harris had 13 kills and three blocks for MA and came up with several crucial points late in the second set.
“(Harris is) amazing,” Wong said. “She’s a game changer. She changes the other side’s offense. They get out of rhythm and you could tell there were some big momentum swings at the end of the fourth, right before she came out, just to give the team so much confidence. I think she definitely gives the team the swagger that a young team needs. She goes out there and makes loud points.”
Barber added nine kills for MA and setter Ellie Yasuda had 24 assists, 10 digs, and two aces.
“Yasuda came in and her setting today was incredible,” Wong said. “She set every ball where it needed to be.”
Around the county
- Redwood won the first set of its Open Division playoff game against Foothill on Wednesday before eventually falling in four — 25-22, 17-25, 26-28, 19-25. Stats were not available at press time. The No. 5 Giants (23-5) will still advance to the NorCal playoffs in two weeks as all six Open Division teams are guaranteed a spot. Other brackets will see the top three teams advance to NorCals with third-place games to determine which semifinalists move on. No. 4 Foothill (26-8) moves on to face No. 1 Branson (20-4) at College of Marin at 7 p.m. next Wednesday. No. 3 James Logan (33-2) won the other first-round game against Carondelet and faces No. 2 Marin Catholic (24-6) in Kentfield at 7 p.m. next Wednesday in the other semifinal.
- Terra Linda (20-13), seeded seventh in D-II, also took the first set before falling in four on the road against No. 10 Freedom, 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-23. The Trojans were led by Josie Campo (12 kills, 25 digs, two aces), Kayli Chen (nine kills, two blocks), and Mia Patino (25 digs, three aces).
- No. 12 San Marin saw its season come to an end following a three-set road loss against No. 5 St. Mary’s. The Mustangs (23-14) were led by Sylvia Tuerke’s 12 kills and Gabi Ginocchio’s 23 assists. Brianna Nottingham had five kills and three aces, Paige Brumley had seven kills, and Sawyer Zappelli had four kills, three aces, and three blocks.