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If there were lingering doubts among the Mountain View girls volleyball players that they belonged among the top teams in the area, the past two nights slipped them out the backdoor and sent them packing.
The Spartans are for real and they showed it with a four-set SCVAL De Anza Division victory over Palo Alto Wednesday night, 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22.
“For me this is validation,” Mountain View coach Dave Winn said. “I’ve said all along that this team has untapped potential and they’ve shown that. They thought they were supposed to be OK. Now they’ve shown that they can play with any team.”
The Spartans (11-2, 4-1) ended a seven-match losing streak to the Vikings that dated to Nov. 5, 2015, when there was a hole in the ground where Peery Family Center now stands and Paly played its matches at Gunn.
“I was starting to think this gym was never going to be nice to me,” said Winn, who coached eight years at Palo Alto, winning a pair of state titles in 2010 and 2011.
Mountain View never worried about the losing streak.
“I just wanted to play and I wanted to beat them,” Spartan junior setter-outside hitter Andisheh Turner said. “This team is super connected and we play every point like its 0-0.”
That’s why the Spartans never panicked when they got behind by as many as six points in the fourth set.
“It’s always a tough game with them,” senior setter Anya Kesselring said. “We showed up and we stepped up. This match definitely gave us confidence.”
Mountain View played its sixth match in five days, which included a win over district rival Los Altos in the third-place match of the Spartan Invitational on Saturday. Mountain View also beat the Eagles 25-20, 25-18, 25-21 in a league match Tuesday night.
Junior Millie Kopp had nine kills and hit .444 Tuesday as the Spartans combined to hit .342. Sophomore Lyric Manson had eight kills and hit .438 and senior Fiona Huang recorded seven kills and hit .429.
Senior Carolyn Dormady led Los Altos with 17 kills and hit .419.
Mountain View has a home game against Gunn at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday while Palo Alto (11-6, 3-1) travels to play Los Gatos (10-4, 3-0). The Wildcats have a match at Los Altos (9-8, 1-2) on Thursday.
Water polo
Teddy Meeks and Tommy Kiesling led a strong defense to help Menlo School pull away from host Bellarmine 13-8 in a WCAL match Wednesday. Kiesling led the Knights (6-3, 2-1) with five goals, Greg Hilberbrand added four and Jack Murad had three.
Sacred Heart Prep mainstays Jake Tsotadze and Luke Bachler each made their season debut in Wednesday’s 16-2 victory over Mitty. Tsotadze scored a goal and recorded an assist.
Orlando Hernandez Alvarado stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced over the final three quarters.
Hassen Hove led the Gators (7-1, 3-0) with four goals. Red Averbuck added three goals and Nelson Harris scored twice.
Lucy Homer scored four goals as the SHP girls beat Mitty 15-3 in a league match. Ella Woodhead added three goals while Margaret Brandin, Charlotte Summe and Megan Newby each added a pair.
Natalia Szczerba led SHP (9-0, 2-0) with four assists and Riley Hocker had three.
Cross country
The St. Francis girls had five runners among the top six to win the West Catholic Athletic League center meet in Golden Gate Park Tuesday.
St. Francis beat second-place Mitty 19-43 as freshman Sabrina Zanetto won in 18:26.5. Lillian Kaelber, Anna Fawcett, Hinako Yamamoto and Caitlin Cilley finished 3-4-5-6 for the Lancers.
St. Francis placed second behind Bellarmine, 25-79, in the boys race. Junior Jack Sloan was fourth in 16:07.1 for the Lancers.
