By Pete Borello

Los Altos falls in five in opening round

Prep Volleyball Playoffs

espite being heavily favored, the top-seeded St. Francis High girls volleyball team entered last Saturday’s Northern California Division II semifinal concerned about No. 5 Campolindo.

“We were really nervous about this one because we hadn’t seen them and they saw us at the the Central Coast Section final,” coach Dave Gambelin said.

It turns out all that worry was for naught, as the Lancers (28-2) needed just an hour to crush Campolindo 15-2, 15-4, 15-4.

Visiting Campolindo (38-4) scored the first point of the night, prompting a celebration typically reserved for far greater feats, but had little to glorify after that.

St. Francis scored the next 14 points, three on kills by Diane Copenhagen, and soon finished the game on a spike by fellow 6-foot sophomore Jessica Gysin.

The Lancers jumped out to an 8-0 lead in Game 2 behind Copenhagen’s two kills and a block. She finished with a match-high 14 kills, while Gysin tallied nine kills and 10 digs.

“Diane and Jessica were phenomenal,” Gambelin said.

Setter Christa Conom also had a stellar game, recording 12 of her match-best 29 assists.

St. Francis opened Game 3 with five straight points, then let the Cougars pull within 7-4. The Lancers quickly deflated Campolindo’s spirits, though, with another five-point run that featured two kills by Copenhagen. She later finished the match by faking a spike and dinking the ball on the surprised Cougars.

St. Francis hosted No. 2 Rio Americano (33-5) in Tuesday’s NorCal final. The winner plays for the state title at 5 p.m., Saturday, at Cypress College.

In the Nov. 20 quarterfinals, St. Francis cruised to a straight-game win over No. 8 Vacaville. It took the defending state champion Lancers less than an hour to pull off a 15-2, 15-0, 15-6 win over the Bulldogs (33-5).

Gysin led St. Francis with 13 kills and Kamala Sipin had 10. Conom made 19 assists and Colby Lyman had nine digs.

Eagles lose close one

Los Altos High hasn’t had a lot of luck in the NorCal playoffs in recent years, but the team has developed a reputation for not going down without a fight.

For the fourth year in a row, the Eagles took their NorCal opponent to five games before losing. Host St. Francis (Sacramento), the fourth seed, edged No. 5 Los Altos 15-9, 10-15, 10-15, 15-11, 17-15 on Nov. 20.

The quarterfinal loss ended the Eagles’ season at 26-8 and marked the third time in four years they have been ousted in the tournament’s opening round.

Last week’s match may go down as the Eagles’ most controversial NorCal defeat.

After losing Game 1, Los Altos rallied to win the next two to swing the momentum its way. But two controversial events in the fourth game changed all that.

“That game was a little crazy,” Los Altos coach Jason Mansfield said.

The craziness started with a questionable call by the referee.

“There was a touch call on our side of the net, and we didn’t touch it,” Mansfield said.

And later, with Krysta Accola serving for the trailing Eagles, Mansfield claimed there was a scoring error.

“After she served twice, the score went from 10-7 to 10-9, but the scorebook only showed 10-8,” he said. “We complained and the refs agreed with us, but the book is what they go by.”

Mansfield told the refs his team was playing the rest of the match under protest. The California Interscholastic Federation, which runs the NorCal playoffs, later dismissed the protest.

After dropping Game 4, the irked Eagles trailed 4-0 and 11-7 in the final game. They recovered to tie it at 13, 14 and 15. St. Francis then forced a sideout and scored two straight points to cap the 2 1/2 hour match.

“I’ve got to give us some credit,” Mansfield said. “The girls battled.”

Sadie Lerch came off the bench to lead Los Altos with 12 kills. “She blocked well and had some key kills,” Mansfield said.

Juli Winterbotham and Suedy Ezzatyar had 11 kills.

Kristen Luxton had a stellar all-around match with 48 assists and 17 digs, both team highs, plus seven kills and three aces.

“She played like the MVP of the team,” Mansfield said.

The coach also praised Andrea Cummings, who passed efficiently and made 15 digs despite playing with the flu.