Windsor part of four-way tie at top; next up is NCS playoffs
The Lady Jaguars etched their mark in the Windsor High School sports history books on Oct. 27, finishing off their best-ever regular season campaign to forge a four-way tie for the North Bay League title.
“This is the first volleyball title for Windsor High School,” veteran coach Rich Schwarz beamed. “It was one of our goals this season, so our girls are extremely excited.”
The Jaguars opened the week with a disappointing loss to Cardinal Newman in four sets, but bounced back two nights later with a sweep over Rancho Cotate to finish the league schedule with an 11-3 record and 17-5 overall.
The focus then quickly turned to the Maria Carrillo-Cardinal Newman match being played in Santa Rosa, where the Cardinals closed out the Pumas to lift Windsor into a four-way tie with Carrillo, Newman and Montgomery, all finishing at 11-3.
“During a timeout (against Rancho Cotate), one of our parents let our players know that Newman had a two games to zero lead over Carrillo,” Schwarz said.
“This is exactly what we needed as the girls came out of the timeout and finally played like they did in the first half of the season. The girls headed off to Cardinal Newman to watch the end of that match and arrived just in time to watch Newman win in four over the talented Carrillo squad.”
On Sunday the Jags were awarded the fifth seed in the North Coast Section Division-2 playoffs and at press time were preparing to host number 12 ranked El Cerrito on Nov. 1.
Should Windsor win as expected, it will travel to face arch-rival Montgomery in the NCS quarterfinals on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. The winner of that match will automatically qualify for the CIF Nor Cal State Tournament later this month.
Jags forge
co-championship
Windsor paid tribute to graduating veterans Allison Post, Bridget Aikawa, Lindsay Tucker, Nikki Young, Yessenia Sanchez and Cheloy Gonzalez before taking the court against visiting Cardinal Newman on Senior Night on Oct. 25. Windsor used the added emotion to win the first set 25-20, but the Cardinals regrouped to win the next three games and the match; 25-17, 25-6 and 25-17.
Post paced the offensive attack with 19 kills, while Aikawa (32 assists) and Sanchez (6 kills) also played well for the Jags.
“Cardinal Newman simply served us off the court,” Schwarz said, citing 17 aces for the Cardinals as Windsor’s undoing. “They put pressure on us all night and we just couldn’t find an answer.”
The Jags were looking for a win and some divine intervention when they traveled to take on Rancho Cotate on Oct. 27, coming out a bit flat before pulling out a win in straight sets; 25-21, 25-18 and 25-12.
Aikawa turned in an outstanding night with 25 assists, 7 digs, 5 kills and 2 aces. Other top performers included Post (17 kills, 8 digs, 3 aces), libero Kylie Benjamin (18 digs, 2 aces), Brittany Johnson (7 kills, 2 blocks) and setter Kaitlyn Alger (11 assists, 4 digs, 12 service points).
