Mtn. View beats Los Altos in league for the first time since October 1997

By Pete Borello, Town Crier Staff Writer

photos by R. Alan Hwang/Special to the Town Crier Mountain View High players embrace as they celebrate beating rival Los Altos last week. The Spartans won in straight games.

The streak has come to an end. The Mountain View High girls volleyball team last week defeated rival Los Altos in a league match for the first time in eight years.

“It wasn’t on our list of goals for the season, but obviously it was something we wanted to do,” Mountain View coach Gerrie Phillips said after the 25-21, 25-15, 25-18 win Oct. 24. “It wasn’t a huge focus, but it was a huge relief that we did it.”

The Spartans’ sweep spoiled senior night for the host Eagles, who saw their eight-match winning streak come to a halt.

“Mountain View brought its ‘A’ game, loud cheering fans and a ton of motivation, and we didn’t match up,” Los Altos coach Dave Winn said. “Their seniors were hungrier and they deserved the victory.”

Although the Spartans (24-7 overall) beat the Eagles (22-15) at an early season tournament, they lost to them at home Oct. 4 in an SCVAL De Anza Division match. Phillips said her team learned from that defeat.

“The girls were so hyped up for that match, it was chaotic on the court,” the coach said. “This time, they knew they had a job to do, and they did it. They played flawlessly. I couldn’t have asked them to do anything better.”

Mountain View never trailed in the match, and Los Altos only tied the Spartans twice. Seniors Chelsea Ligda, Summer Reeves, Abby Damm and Ali Hanshaw led Mountain View to victory.

Outside hitter Ligda posted a match-high 12 kills and made just one hitting error, while Reeves “played really well in the middle,” Phillips said, and notched 10 kills.

Setter Damm recorded 31 assists and earned high praise from her coach.

“She’s my stud,” Phillips said. “She’s been phenomenal all season. She’s our backbone, and we wouldn’t be where we are without her. She does everything for us.”

Hanshaw, a libero, added 12 digs, 11 serve-receive passes and plenty of energy.

“She’s definitely our vocal motivator,” Phillips said. “She gets everyone fired up.”

The Spartans improved to 7-3 in the division, putting them alone in second place with two matches remaining. The Eagles sunk to 5-5, moving them into a tie for fourth with Palo Alto. Only the top three finishers earn automatic berths in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

“We should still be OK for playoffs, even though an automatic bid is not realistically going to happen,” Winn said. “We just want to focus on continuing to improve our serving and serve-receive to be tough in the playoffs. Our goal is to finish league at 6-6, and maybe that gets us a seven or eight seed in (CCS) Division II.”

Los Altos was scheduled to play at first-place Los Gatos on Tuesday and wraps up league play at 6:45 p.m. Thursday at last-place Milpitas.

Mountain View was set to play at third-place Gunn on Tuesday, then closes the regular season by hosting Cupertino at 6:45 Thursday.

Lancers win in five

Both teams went to 4-3 in the West Catholic Athletic League.