By Pete Borello

Coach Dave Gambelin said he had no idea how good his Kaepa City Beach 16-and-under team would be when the club volleyball season started back in January.

But after his team - which features seven girls from St. Francis High - opened the year with a third-place finish in the prestigious Phoenix Classic, Gambelin realized this could be a special season.

“It was an 18-and-under tournament and we were seeded 100th out of 128 teams, and we just missed the championship game,” said Gambelin, who also coaches the girls varsity team at St. Francis. “That was a huge boost.”

A boost that helped propel City Beach to the National Junior Olympic Volleyball Championships in Salt Lake City earlier this month.

City Beach rolled through the 16 Open Division undefeated and swept Cal Juniors of Southern California in the gold medal match on July 4.

Santa Clara-based City Beach played nine matches over the four-day tournament, including three on the final day. Playing so many matches in such a short time took its toll on several of the 28 teams competing, Gambelin said, but not on fifth-seeded City Beach.

“We’re lucky we had good depth - there are 12 players on the team and they all contributed,” said Gambelin, who noted that City Beach won 27 of 31 games in their nine matches. “I told them going into (the national) that they were going to win or lose as a team and we would need all 12 players to contribute, and they did.”

Not only did City Beach have depth, but plenty of talent as well. Four players were selected to the all-tournament team, led by MVP Jessica Gysin.

Middle blocker Diane Copenhagen, right-side hitter Colby Lyman and setter Christa Conom were also recognized for their efforts.

“Gysin was on fire and Copenhagen was a force at the net,” Gambelin said of two players who as freshmen last year helped St. Francis win the state championship.

The coach said Lyman, who will be a junior at St. Francis, was “unstoppable.” And Conom, an incoming sophomore at Presentation High in San Jose, “set really well.”

Conom, in her first season with City Beach, isn’t surprised by how well her team performed.

“I could tell from the start, from the quality of the players that coach Gambelin chose, that our team would have a good chance to win a medal at the (Junior Olympic) in Salt Lake City this year. We made that our goal,” said the daughter of Tom Conom, who works in Los Altos Hills as the police chief of the Foothill-De Anza College District. “I think it was about half way through the season that I felt very strongly that our team was coming together to the level where we would have good chance to win the gold medal.”

Gambelin said he was proud of the way City Beach persevered after injuries sidelined Gysin (knee) and Lyman (shoulder) early in the season.

“The team got better as the season went on, even with two of our biggest links out,” said Gambelin, who was assisted by his wife Chris. “When they came back, we were even stronger.”

City Beach featured top-notch players from as far as Danville and Morgan Hill. Other St. Francis players on the team included Brianna Galvin, Courtney Leonard, Annie Montgomery and Taylor Whitell. Rounding out the roster were Allison Ara (Palo Alto High), Christina Conrad (home schooled), Kelly Crow (Monte Vista-Danville) and Katie Turley-Maloney (Presentation).