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NORTHERN
CALIFORNIA REGIONALS
Regional seeding doesn't
guarantee a team's advancement in the postseason. The North region exemplified
why you still play the matches as there were three upsets out of four matches
in the Northern Regional women's volleyball finals Saturday.
Only No. 1 seed and state No. 2 ranked San Joaquin Delta survived among the
top four seeds to advance to the California Community Colleges Commission on
Athletics Women's Volleyball Championships Presented by U.S. Bank Dec. 9-11
at Fresno's Selland Arena.
The other top seeds, No. 2 Sacramento City, No. 3 Butte and No. 4 Taft were
knocked off at their home sites. Ironically, those three teams were participants
in last year's State Final Eight. Joining Delta in Fresno this week will be
No. 5 seed West Valley, No. 6 seed San Jose City and No. 10 seed Fresno City.
Delta, the Big 7 Conference champions, improved to 22-1 with an easy win over
fellow conference foe and 8th seed Santa Rosa, 30-17, 30-16, 30-15. The Mustangs
were paced by Kim Sordello with 12 kills, Breanne Zelmer with 11 kills and 3
blocks, and Frances Sandor, who had 8 kills and 3 blocks. Setter Hillary Rasmussen
contributed 39 assists and Ashley Hullen served 4 aces. Santa Rosa finished
at 15-9.
Fresno (20-6) was 20th ranked in the state coming into its match v. 6th-rated
Sacramento. The Rams fell behind by two games, but made a valiant comeback to
win in a five-game thriller, 19-30, 24-30, 37-35, 30-27, 15-12. The second-place
team from the Central Valley Conference, Fresno placed four players in double
figures in kills as Jamie-Rose Walberg tallied 13, Katie Franz 12, Lauren Storey
12, and Megan Roehl 11. Michelle Gutierrez scored 38 digs and setter Kaira Kachardurian
volleyed 42 assists.
Sacramento, the only team to beat Delta in the regular season, saw its season
end at 23-4.
San Jose leads the state in most best-of-5 match victories and the Co-Coast
Conference South Division champions improved to 26-3 by sweeping state No. 7-ranked
Butte, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. The Jaguars were ranked No. 10 in the state and
had split two non-conference matches with the Roadrunners in the regular season.
Leading San Jose were Ashley Madrigal with 14 kills and Nicole Payne with 13.
Butte (21-4), the Golden Valley Conference champion, was led by All-State setter
Kayla Comer with 46 assists and Natasha Marquis with 14 kills.
West Valley, the other Co-Coast South champs, had bounced around the state poll
all season and despite a No. 14 ranking and No. 5 seeding, it advanced to the
State Final Eight by defeating 12th-ranked Taft in four games, 27-30, 30-17,
30-22, 30-23. The Vikings had suffered through injuries, but were hot over the
final weeks of the season and improved their record to 22-5. Taft, the Central
Valley champions, will not make a return to the State Tournament after its first
trip last year. Taft finished the season at 21-3.
With a guarantee of a new state champion this year as 12-time defending winner
Golden West was eliminated in the South Regionals first round, the North region
may have its best shot at winning a state title. Since the State Tournament
began in 1977, no North team has ever won the state crown. There have been eight
second place finishes.
Delta has an impressive run of finishing in third place or higher in each of
the last six years, including a second place in 2002.
West Valley placed tied for third in 2003, but that was when the tourney was
limited to four teams and single-elimination due to that year's statewide budget
crisis. Fresno returns to the tourney for the first time since 2002. San Jose
makes its first State Tourney appearance.
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---Robert Lewis, CCCWVCA Publicist/Statistician, rmlewis@pasadena.edu
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