Jags beat El Cerrito, Montgomery to qualify for Nor Cal tourney
An historic volleyball season got even better for the Lady Jaguars in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Section Division-2 playoffs on Saturday, slipping past arch rival Montgomery in five heart-stopping sets.
The win came on the heels of an opening round NCS win over El Cerrito on Nov. 2 and advanced the fifth seeded Jags into the semifinals against number one ranked Campolindo on Nov. 9. Should Windsor pull an upset, it will meet the survivor of the Bishop O’Dowd-American match in a championship clash on Saturday, Nov. 12 (site TBD).
Win or lose the Jags (19-5) are assured of a second straight trip to the CIF Nor Cal State Playoffs next week by virtue of no worse than a top-four NCS finish. The Nor Cal selection committee will announce the tournament seeding following the NCS tourney on Sunday.
Jags on a roll
After securing a share of their first ever North Bay League title, Windsor took a head of steam into the NCS opener on Nov. 1 against 12th seeded visiting El Cerrito.
Although Windsor was not in peak form, the team did enough to score a win in straight sets; 25-21, 25-12 and 25-21.
“We were very happy that we got the five seed in NCS simply because we didn’t want to have a first round bye like last year,” Schwarz noted. “We didn’t serve or pass serve well at all (against El Cerrito) and that usually costs you the match, but we did enough to win in three games.”
Pacing the offensive attack were senior team captains Bridget Aikawa (31 assists, 3 aces), Allison Post (22 kills, 2 aces) and middle hitter Brittany Johnson (4 kills). Turning in strong defensive efforts were Kylie Benjamin, Celina Sylvester, Kaitlyn Alger and Nikki Young, who combined for most of the team’s 78 digs.
The Jaguars squared off with fourth seeded Montgomery on the Vikings home court in Saturday’s epic NCS quarterfinals, with each team owning a win over the other in a hotly contested league series.
“Knowing our next opponent would be league rival Montgomery, we spent our next practice studying game film from our loss two weeks earlier,” Schwarz said. “After watching some of the errors we committed and seeing what plays Monty liked to run we worked the next two days planning on ways to stop their offense and fix our errors. This proved to be very beneficial,” he added.
The rubber match would quickly evolve into a classic, as the teams waged an all-out battle before Windsor emerged the victor in five electrifying sets; 13-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-19 and 16-14.
Post, the Most Valuable Player in the NBL, enjoyed a spectacular night to lead the team with 30 kills, 6 aces and 14 digs. Other great performances were had by Aikawa (career best 58 assists), Destiny Clark (17 kills); Brittany Johnson (13 kills, 5 blocks), Yessenia Sanchez (7 kills, 3 blocks.) and Benjamin (12 service points).
