The Palo Alto High School volleyball team (36-1) advances to the Central Coast Section (CCS) championship after defeating Carlmont High School (21-14) in a close four-game match in the CCS semifinals at Watsonville High School tonight.
“It was the craziest match I have ever seen,” Bruce Whitson, parent of Paly setter Kimmy Whitson (’12), said.
Coming off of a win against Salinas High School in the CCS quarterfinals, the No. 5 Carlmont Scots started off strong in the first match against the Lady Vikes, jumping out to a 5-2 lead. Stopping this brief lead, the Lady Vikes were able to quickly tie the game at 12-12. Once in the lead at 13-12, the Lady Vikes tore ahead of the Scots for the rest of the match, winning 25-17.
“We did a good job and Carlmont responded really well to our level of play,” Paly outside hitter Maddie Kuppe (’12) said.
Kuppe was the Lady Vike’s second kill leader with 11 kills. Paly middle blocker Melanie Wade (’12) had 24 kills on the night.
Although the Lady Vikes gained control of the first game of the match, the second game was a struggle. The Scots led 24-23 when the Lady Vikes climbed back to tie the game 25-25. Several back-and-forth rallies later, the Scots snatched the victory, 28-26, tying the overall match at one game apiece.
“We made some errors in the end of the second set that lost us the game,” Kuppe said. “But in the fourth set we redeemed ourselves.”
The Lady Vikes took the third game, 25-22, giving them the upper-hand in the match with a 2-1 lead.
Carlmont, however, was not ready to let go of its CCS dreams and captured an early, 7-4, lead in the fourth game.
“We were really far down in the fourth set,” Paly setter Kimmy Whitson (’12) said. “We played with a lot of heart and came back to win.”
Whitson had 46 assists and 9 kills total in the match.
The Lady Vikes were slow to gain the lead, but battled with the Scots to tie the game, 21-21. When Carlmont took a 27-26 lead over the Lady Vikes, it looked as though the match might require a fifth, and deciding, game.
“It was 27-26 and Megan [Coleman (’11)] missed her serve into the net,” Kuppe said. “There was tension in the gym. But we all high-fived her and the crowed started cheering, and we got it back on the serve recieve. That gave us that extra confidence.”
Coleman had a strong defensive game for Paly with a game-high 13 digs. Overall, the Lady Vikes passed with an average of 2.05.
Paly and Carlmont fought back-and-forth rallies until the Lady Vikes secured the victory with a 31-29 win.
Paly, the No. 1 seed, will advance to the finals at Independence High School in San Jose at 2:30 p.m on Saturday for the CCS Division I finals. No. 3 Menlo-Atherton (21-7) is going head-to-head with No. 2 North Salinas (28-4) right now to decide who will face the Lady Vikes on Saturday.
“I feel really excited [for the CCS finals],” Paly middle blocker Jackie Koenig (’12) said. “I’m a little nervous, but I know we can do it.”
Click here for the complete CCS volleyball bracket.