New coach. New system. New season. It’s all added up to a winning combination through the opening round of the San Diego Section Division III girls volleyball playoffs for top-seeded Olympian after the Eagles eliminated the newly crowned Metro-Pacific League champion Sweetwater Red Devils in a three-game sweep Tuesday evening in National City.
“Tonight was great — everyone did a good job of distribution,” said OHS head coach Steve Lamb, whose team prevailed by scores of 25-25, 25-13, 25-17 over the host Devils. “We did well, but it’s volleyball. It’s a crazy sport. We’ve had a phenomenal season so far and we’ll see what the rest of the year holds for us.”
Olympian (21-10) next takes the court on Friday when it hosts a quarterfinal-round match against ninth-seeded Helix (17-9). Tip-off is 5 p.m.
Lamb took over a month into the season and implemented some changes. Team members admitted it’s been a learning process over the course of the season, but one that appears to have its reward in sight: a possible CIF division championship.
“We’re excited not because we’re seeded No. 1 but because we really, really want a banner,” senior middle blocker Carolina Villa explained. “We want to be the team that gets that first banner.”
“This year has been really different,” senior outside hitter Jessica Garcia said. “We’ve had a new coach and worked hard to learn a new system and improve during that. We’ve worked hard to get where we are now — the No. 1 seed.”
Despite being the lower-seeded team, Sweetwater hosted Tuesday’s match as a league champion. Olympian finished third in Metro-Mesa League play.
Angela Cabogason recorded 23 digs while Madeline Mendler and Villa each chalked up four kills, Brenda Gonzalez had four aces and Taylor Roberts registered four blocks.
The Eagles appear to be coming together at the right time of the season.
“We’ve improved every single year since I’ve been here,” senior center Krista Schmidt said. “We work really well together. There’s no drama. We’ve improved a lot since the beginning of the season. We’ve had to deal with a lot since the start of the season and we’ve done really well.”
“Ever since coach Lamb came on board, he’s stressed discipline,” Villa said. “We’ve worked hard to keep that discipline going. I think we click really well.”
“We have all the tools, we’re working together as one,” Cabogason added.
The Eagles possess quite a bit of team depth to go with their talent. Khalia Jordan leads Olympian with 318 kills on the season while Lauren Appleman ranks second with 226 kills. Jordan also leads the Eagles with 58 aces while Roberts has 66 blocks, Yvette Macias has 470 digs and Schmidt has 402 assists.
Tuesday’s CIF opener without the services of 2014 Metro-Pacific League Player of the Year Letty Urenda, who suffered an injury at the tail end of the regular season.
SuHi coach Erik Hernandez was the first to give credit to Olympian for a job well done. “They are a great team that has lots of talent all around,” he noted. “I wish them good luck and hope they go far.”
Sweetwater finished 6-0 in league play, defeating Hilltop, last year’s league champion, twice in league play. It was the first league title for the Lady Devils since 2011.
Hernandez said he personally likes the new competition-based playoff format, though he said it still needs some tweaking.
“The power rankings can give you a good idea of where teams are at but you still need a pair of eyes to look it over,” the SuHi coach said. “Teams don’t play the same number of games and some teams are playing better than others at the end of the season.”
Sweetwater entered Tuesday’s match-up against Olympian riding an eight-game winning streak. “We were peaking at the right time,” he said.
Urenda averaged 14 kills per match this season while Breanna Reid averaged 28 assists per match, Naomi Marroquin averaged 10 kills per match and Martha Flores averaged 27 digs per match.
Next up
Metro-Mesa League champion Eastlake (23-12, 8-0 in league) will host 12th-seeded Poway (14-19) in Friday’s Division I quarterfinals after eliminating 13th-seeded Rancho Bernardo 21-25, 25-8, 15-25, 25-20, 15-11 in Tuesday’s opening round. Eastlake is seeded fourth in the division.
Sixth-seeded Otay Ranch (24-9, 6-2 in league) will play at third-seeded Mission Hills (22-13) in Saturday’s Division II quarterfinals after recording a come-from-behind 19-25, 25-19, 27-25, 25-14 victory against 11th-seeded University City in Wednesday’s opening round.
Fourth-seeded Chula Vista High Tech (13-8) will host fifth-seeded Calipatria (13-11) in a Division V quarterfinal Saturday at 5 p.m.
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Metro-South Bay League champion Montgomery (22-8) ended its season with a loss to visiting Mira Mesa in another Division III playoff opener. The third-seeded Aztecs fell 25-15, 13-25, 12-25, 20-25 to the 14th-seeded Marauders.
