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No one had to tell the Menlo-Atherton girls volleyball team they weren’t the favorites Tuesday night against second seed Palo Alto.
The Bears know exactly who and where they are and what kind of a team they can be. They’re beginning to show what it means to stick to the game plan and work together.
“We definitely came in with nothing to lose,” M-A junior co-captain Rebecca Schulman said after No. 7 M-A upset Palo Alto 25-23, 25-20, 25-20 in the quarterfinal round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs. “We knew we were the underdogs so we decided to put it all out on the court.”
Just looking at their overall record (17-17), you might assume the Bears are an average team. They’re not and their seventh seed in a loaded field is the first indication.
It’s taken most of the season to integrate a new system under coach Bryant Tran and M-A seems to have found its rhythm.
The Bears, who was swept by Paly in the season-opener, was rewarded for its strength of schedule. Putting together new ideas and new attitudes against good competition resulted in some awkward results.
“The first match we played here, we didn’t have the same fight,” Schulman. “We didn’t have the connection we have now. We’re one of those teams when if we really want it, we can get it. We want to play volleyball with passion. We want to have fun playing. What’s more fun than playing with a team that fights for each other and wins?”
“I don’t know, I told the team I had a good feeling about today,” Tran said. “We came in with nothing to lose. We had a game plan and everybody executed it perferctly. Even when Palo Alto was making runs at us, we stayed with the plan. We served tough and we had a blocking plan.”
Junior Anna Ryan led the attack for M-A, recording 15 kills and hitting at a .444 clip. Junior Christina Kerr added 10 kills.
Ryan delivered from around the court, serving five aces and contributing nine digs, second only to libero Clara Cronin, who had 17.
Ryan and Schulman, who has eight digs, shared setting duties and combined for 31 assists.
M-A travels to play at No. 3 Los Altos in Thursday’s semifinal round. This will be the first meeting between the two teams, though they share several common opponents, with basically identical results.
“They played better than we did,” Palo Alto coach Chris Crader said. “I’m more disappointed in myself for not being able to help this team get better.”
Crader did not admit it but the health (or lack of it) of his team made it a little more difficult to create any consistency.
“All the kids who missed time would have made an impact but we do have 17 good players on this team,” Crader said. “The last I checked you only needed to have six of them on the court.”
Palo Alto finished 18-13 overall.
“We had some nice wins and there were times I thought we should have won and didn’t,” Crader said.
Palo Alto loses eight seniors in Thea Enache, Amelia Vugrincic, Olivia Harrison, Hillary Cheung, Alison Xiong, Hathaway Bush, Alex Frankline and Hailey Callan.
It won’t be an entirely rebuilding year next season. The Vikings used three sophomores and two freshmen along with a handful of juniors.
Los Altos beat No. 6 San Benito 25-12, 25-17, 26-24 to advance. Top-seeded Mountain View advanced into the semifinals with a 25-11, 25-17, 25-20 victory over No. 8 Cupertino.
The Spartans host No. 4 Monta Vista on Thursday. Monta Vista downed No. 5 Gunn 25-16, 25-15, 25-22.
In Division V, top-seeded Castilleja (25-4) beat Nueva 25-22, 25-17, 25-20 and will meet University Prep on Thursday.
Jordan Amos Grosser and Hadley Nunn each collected eight kills and combined for 28 digs to lead Castilleja. Miraya Rehman added seven kills, six digs and four blocks.
Eveliena Pasmooij and Clare Sun, who share setting duties in a 4-2 offense, combined for 40 assists while each also recorded six kills and two blocks.
