The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and was written by Jim Seimas. Click HERE for the full article.
Cabrillo College's All-American outside hitter Ellie Cary was nothing short of phenomenal in the quarterfinals at the CCCAA Women's Volleyball State Championship tournament on Friday. And teammate Isabella Bush was clutch down the stretch, but it wasn't enough to overcome Grossmont's balanced attack.
Outside hitters Shaney Lipscomb and Naomi Talisa Leilua and middles Brooklyn Anderson and Natalie Seol each reached double-digits in kills and the Griffins, the No. 2 seed out of SoCal, eliminated the Seahawks, NorCal's No. 3 seed, 25-18, 20-25, 25-27, 25-15, 15-11 at Southwestern College in Chula Vista.
The Seahawks, the Coast Conference North Division champion, see their season end at 23-6.
"Learn from it," second-year Seahawks coach Kelsee Montagna told her players after the loss. "It was about showing up and being consistent and that's something they can do in anything in life. … Overall, great season."
Grossmont (27-3), the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champ, faces No. 1 NorCal seed Feather River (32-2) in Saturday's semifinal. The Golden Eagles swept No. 4 SoCal seed Mira Costa, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 in the quarterfinals.
Cary recorded a match-high 29 kills on 59 attempts for a scorching .441 kill percentage. She had just three errors, leaving socalcollegesports.com match announcers marveling at her power and placement.
Montagna said she was approached by several college coaches after the match. They noted they had been to tons of these tournaments and they'd never seen someone play so well.
"She raised it a level," Montagna said of her star sophomore, a transfer who redshirted at UC Riverside.
Bush had 10 kills and hit .381. Setter Kendra Lis had 31 assists, eight digs and one kill for Cabrillo. Hailey Naccarato had a team-high 15 digs.