KENTFIELD, CA – There have been other girls volleyball programs from the Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section that have won state CIF volleyball titles since the CIF started state championships for girls volleyball in 1978.
Those state titles came in enrollment based divisions and not under the new formula that is based on competitive equity. However after a 25-17, 25-15, 25-23 sweep of No. 6 seed Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland in the CIF Northern Regional Open Division playoffs top-seed and host Marin Catholic is now in unchartered waters after avenging a tournament loss earlier this season to the Dragons to advance to the state CIF Open Division championship match on Saturday evening against Torrey Pines-San Diego at Santiago Canyon College in Orange.
Marin Catholic (35-3) came out with a purpose and the Maxpreps Xcellent 25 national No. 20 and No. 6 Cal-Hi Sports state ranked Wildcats easily avenged a late September 2-1 loss to O’Dowd in the Notre Dame-Belmont Tiger Cup tournament title match.
“The kids played incredibly mature,” said Marin Catholic Coach Jake Spain. “They’ve grown up a ton in the past two months and we had great senior leadership in this match.”
Senior leadership for Marin Catholic starts with Kari Geissberger. The 6-6 Loyola Marymount-committed outside hitter finished with 16 kills. Harvard-bound senior 6-1 middle blocker Olivia Cooper added 10 kills.
The duo was set up by sophomore setter Leah Laboy who had 33 assists.
Bishop O’Dowd (30-8) got to the title match with a big win over No. 2 Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco.
UC Santa Barbara-bound senior outside hitter Michelle Ohwobete led the Dragons with 14 kills, senior setter Augustina Santa Cruz added 14 assists and eight points off serve and senior setter Alexandria Hoglund had 10 assists.
“A win over Sacred Heart Cathedral on their home court and winning 3-1 after travelling to Sacramento to face St. Francis and winning 3-0 shows this season was no fluke and our girls belonged in the conversation of the best teams in the state,” said O’Dowd Coach Nova Bramed.
Despite being the top team from Northern California Marin Catholic will be a big underdog to a Torrey Pines team is ranked No. 2 in the Xcellent 25 and No. 1 by Cal-Hi Sports has three wins over a Cathedral Catholic-San Diego team that beat Marin Catholic 2-0 at the Nevada Durango-Las Vegas tournament, but that was then and this is now and Spain sees it a little different as his team prepares to travel to Orange County.
“We’re going into the match just trying to play our best volleyball,” Spain said. “We’re all excited about this experience and our kids play well in big matches, plus we’re peaking and playing our best Volleyball at a good time.
Win or lose the Marin Catholic girls will return home as the greatest team ever from the Redwood Empire portion of the North Coast Section, the only team from the NCS to compete in the Open Division since the CIF established it in 2016, and possibly the best ever NCS team overall.
