HAROLD ABEND
Prep2Prep Senior Editor

March 9, 2025

CONCORD, Calif. – Just like in the CIF North Coast Section Open Division Third-Place game two weeks ago, where it was close early on before Carondelet took charge to post a 14-point win, the rematch in the state CIF Northern Regional Division I semifinals between No. 3 seed Carondelet and seventh-seeded Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa was almost a duplicate of the previous meeting and it produced a 64-46 victory for the host Cougars.

With the victory Carondelet (28-6) will play for the CIF Northern Regional Division I championship on Tuesday when it hosts No. 4 seed St. Mary’s-Stockton. St. Mary’s advanced to the title-game matchup with a 61-48 victory over No. 9 seed Piedmont.

Junior star forward Layla Dixon led four Cougars in double-figure scoring with 13 points (one three-pointer) plus seven rebounds and four assists. The other three all had 12 points. Flashy junior guard Sophia Ross got her 12 points on four three-pointers. Sophomore forward Celeste Alvarez also had six rebounds, played great defense, and blocked four shots of Cardinal Newman freshman standout post Saundra Jordan, and junior guard Olivia Smith added six rebounds to her dozen points.

Santa Clara-bound senior Kate Schat played her last game for Cardinal Newman, and she played her heart out to finish as the only double-digit scorer for the Cardinals with 13 points, plus four rebounds and three assists. Jordan, who at times was guarded by both Alvarez and Dixon, plus others, had nine points and nine rebounds.

“Defense,” said Carondelet head coach Kelly Sopak about the key to the victory just as it was in the first meeting. “We had to do a better job on their young post. Number thirty (Schat) is so good you can only hope to contain her, so we brought help to defend the big.”

Carondelet led 12-8 after one quarter and Newman got the first basket of the second quarter to cut the lead to two, but when Jordan picked up her second foul the Cougars began to take charge.

The lead was 28-17 at the half, and when it got to 34-20 early in the third quarter, the Cardinals made a push to close it to 34-25, but that was as close as they would get. At one point in the fourth quarter the lead was 25 points before Sopak cleared the bench and Newman closed on an 8-1 run to make it look a little more respectable.

All in all, it was a pretty good season for a young Cardinal Newman team that besides Schat only had one other senior on its 12-player roster. A highlight for the Cardinals was going to Clovis last week for the quarterfinals and pinning a 62-61 loss on the hosts after they had lost to Clovis by 16 points in December at the Justin-Siena tournament in Napa.

Carondelet, also a young team with only three senior non-starters on its 12-player roster, now faces a St. Mary’s team that surprisingly is the last team left from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section in either Division I or the Open Division. St. Mary’s lost to McClatchy in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D1 semifinals but still qualified for the Northern Regional playoffs, and McClatchy defeated a Folsom team for the CIFSJS D1 title, and in the D1 NorCals Folsom was upset by the Piedmont team St. Mary’s defeated to advance to the matchup with Carondelet.

When looking ahead to St. Mary’s Sopak was still talking defense.

“This late in the season defense has to be the focus,” Sopak remarked. “Tonight, we did that, and we have to maintain that against St. Mary’s.”