CIF state volleyball: Campolindo falls in Division I title match
Mt. Madonna beats University of Los Angeles to win the Division V state crown.
ORANGE — Campolindo’s bid for a state volleyball championship Friday night fell short as Vista Murrieta prevailed 20-25, 30-28, 25-22, 25-21 in the California Interscholastic Federation Division I final at Santiago Canyon College.
Freshman phenom Claire Little, a BYU commit, smashed 30 kills in 49 attacks with just six errors for an amazing .490 attack percentage in leading the Southern California champion Broncos.
The kill total was the 12th highest in state finals history.
Vista Murrieta also received 12 kills from Reka Monteleone and 11 from Juliette Russell.
NorCal champion Campolindo, in its fifth visit to the finals, was paced by UCLA-bound senior setter Audrey Pak with 31 assists and five kills, and Erin Thomas with 10 kills and a .391 attack percentage. Molly Mitchell contributed nine kills and Sophia Newman and Madison Xiong each added six.
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“We did everything we possibly could have planned for,” Campolindo coach John Vuong said. “It was a great performance. I’m proud of that performance.”
The contest featured big swings of momentum. Trailing 14-6 in the first set, the Cougars ran off a 15-3 surge behind Pak, Mitchell, Newman and libero Brianna Lee to win the set.
In the second set, the Broncos dodged six set points in rallying from a 24-19 deficit to win 30-28 and even matters at a set apiece.
Vista Murrieta prevailed down the stretch of the third set by scoring the final four points for a 25-22 win. In the final set, the Broncos led just 22-21 and won with three straight kills from Little.
Mt. Madonna won its second state title by running away from University of Los Angeles in the CIF State Division V championship match 25-15, 20-25, 25-22, 25-8. The previous trophy came in 2007 when current Hawks coach Erin Mitchell was a player on the title team.
Paola Jacobs led Mt. Madonna, a school with just 63 students, with 25 kills and Eve Willis and Liana Kitchel each contributed nine kills. Taadi Henderon led University, with a student body of 1,658, with 12 kills and Natalie Fernandez added eight.
“When we got the lead, we didn’t look back,” Hawks setter Savannah Cambell said. “In the fourth game, we felt we were ourselves.”
After closing out the third set, Mt. Madonna jumped out to a 12-0 fourth set lead and finished with 16 kills and just two hitting errors.