CATHEDRAL SEES SEASON END IN 4
Cathedral Catholic High School’s girls volleyball team came into the 2023 season with Size 15, Triple-E-width shoes to fill. The Dons recorded a 42-0 record last season, lost a whopping one set, won the state championship, were selected national champions by MaxPreps.com and Julia Blyashov was named the national player of the year.
Of this year’s team, coach Juliana Conn said, “There was a big weight on their shoulders.”
The ’23 Dons made their own mark, winning a third straight San Diego Section Open Division title, but the ride came to an end Tuesday night as Santa Ana Mater Dei, the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, defeated Cathedral in the Southern California Regional Open Division championship match 25-22, 25-20, 19-25, 25-16.
The Monarchs (42-2) advanced to Saturday’s state championship match against the San Jose Archbishop Mitty.
Cathedral, the fourthranked team in the nation, finishes 34-5.
Mater Dei is loaded with talented outside hitters. To pull off an upset, Conn said the Dons couldn’t allow multiple outside hitters to racks up kills. By the end of the night, the Monarchs’ depth proved to be too much.
Michigan-bound Cymarah Gordon led both teams with 17 kills. Two other teammates landed in double figures, University of San Diego-commit Isabel Clark (16) and 6-foot-4 freshman Emma Kingston with 10.
“They had everyone firing from everywhere,” said Conn. “It was hard to go get a block. When we did have a block, they put on real good swings and we couldn’t stop them.”
The teams split two matches earlier in the season with the Monarchs taking the most meaningful one with a chance to win a state title on the line.
While Mater Dei landed three players in double-figure kills, Jenna Hanes was the only one for Cathedral. The 6-foot-3 Michiganbound Hanes posted 13 kills. Tiana Owens, a senior who’ll play at Colgate, had nine kills. Junior Mae Kordas had six kills and five blocks.
Hanes and Gordon will be teammates next year at Michigan.
Through two sets, Cathedral never led by more than one point. But in the third set the Dons refused to be swept. Cathedral built its first twopoint lead at 13-11. The visitors ran off six straight points for a 19-12 lead and put away the set.
“I told them, ‘Hey, our season is on the line,’ ” said Conn. “‘We’re going to have to play our little hearts out. If we don’t, the season’s over.’ ”
At one point, Cathedral led the fourth set 12-10 and it looked like the match might go five. But with the set tied 13-13, Mater Dei ran off 10 of the next 11 points, including eight in a row for a 23-15 lead. Fittingly, Clark, the future Torero, closed the match with a kill that caromed off the Dons. Clark had seven kills in the set.
Division III
Fourth-seeded Del Norte (24-15) won the first game, then fell to second-seeded Visalia Redwood 19-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-18 in the Southern California Regional finals.