Cabrillo brings CCCAA Beach Volleyball to NorCal after beating defending champion MiraCosta
SARATOGA, Calif. - Cabrillo College became the first Northern California school to win a state title in the brief history of the California Community College Athletic Association Beach Volleyball Championship and the Seahawks did it in resounding fashion, sweeping defending champion MiraCosta, 3-0, on Thursday afternoon at West Valley College.
Cabrillo, which went 2-0 to win its pool earlier in the day, clinched the match when Mari Molina and Alex Bol posted a come-from-behind over the Spartans' top pair of Claire Kinder and Chloe Tripp. Paige Shieferstein and Kylie Kvam beat Celin MacDonald and Lana Salazar in straight sets at No. 3, and Kendra Lis and Alena Fernandez edged Madison Anderson and Violete Faleumu at No. 4 for the other two scoring points.
The Seahawks and Spartans were tied at a set apiece in the two remaining matches which were halted once the match was clinched.
"I'm really proud of the team," said fourth-year coach Lucas Bol. "We put in hard work for months, stuck together, and fought and battled and won a championship. I'm super proud of them."
Cabrillo entered the championship seeded second among the two NorCal teams participating but Bol said the number next to the Seahawks' name meant nothing.
"Going into it, we didn't see a single Southern California team so we had no expectations, which is kind of where we wanted to be," he said.
Cabrillo beat a pair of SoCal teams during pool play to earn its trip to the state championship match. It opened its day with a 4-1 win over Moorpark, a match that included a pair of three-set wins by Wilson/Hall and Lis/Fernandez. Both came after the pairs lost their opening sets.
A short time later, the Seahawks beat Long Beach City, the top seed from Southern California, by a 3-2 score. The showdown featured another comeback win when Ellie Cary/Samuelson turned back the Vikings' Elsa Woods and Maria Clausen, 17-21, 21-11, 15-10.
"I think we trusted each other, we worked well as a team, communicated really well and just played hard," Bol said.
The Spartans were looking to claim their second state title in the four-year history of the championship. They had a 3-2 win over Irvine Valley in their first match and then blanked Sierra, the top seed from NorCal, 4-0 to punch their ticket to the final.