Aptos’ Kori Williams hits a spike against Scotts Valley during a Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League tournament match Nov. 3 in Aptos. The Mariners are the top seed in the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs and will play No. 5 Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco in the semifinals tonight at Valley Christian High School in San Jose. (Photo by Eric Anderson)

The Aptos High girls volleyball team has been a fixture in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

The Mariners have qualified every year since 1990, winning the Division III title in 1992.

They are back again this year, and are the top seeds in Division III, and will face Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco in the semifinals tonight at Valley Christian High in San Jose.

For many years, Aptos was the lone local team to be a threat at CCS, but two other teams, Mount Madonna and St. Francis, are themselves becoming fixtures in the playoffs, and along with Castilleja of Palo Alto make up the section’s best three Division V programs.

Mount Madonna (24-6), the 2007 CCS and state Division V champion, is making its fifth straight playoff appearance and is the top seed this year. It will face No. 4 Crystal Springs

(19-11) in the semifinals tonight at Santa Clara High.

St. Francis (20-12) is the defending section Division V champion, and is back in the semifinals as the No. 3 seed despite losing the star of last year’s team, Katherine Brown, who is now playing at Cal. The Sharks are in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, having lost to Castilleja in the 2007 semifinals and the 2006 final, and will face Castilleja (16-12), which is seeded No. 2 this year, in the semifinals.

If Aptos, Mount Madonna and St. Francis, each of which has one win in the playoffs thus far, win tonight, they will assure themselves of spots in the Northern California playoffs. Two teams from each division qualify. Following is a closer look at the Mariners, Hawks and Sharks:

•••

Aptos

For the first time since 2005, the Mariners are in the CCS semifinals, a round in which they have historically struggled.

Since making the Division II finals in 1994, they have lost their last nine semifinal matches, including from 1996-2001 and 2003-05.

Many of Aptos’ playoff defeats came in Division II, which in recent years has included some of the top teams in the country, including Archbishop Mitty and St. Francis-Mountain View. Now that the Mariners are in Division III, they have a much better chance to win a second section title, coach Jen Bryan said.

“This time, it’s doable,” she said. “It’s definitely a good feeling.”

While Aptos (32-7) is the higher seed, Sacred Heart Cathedral (25-11) beat the Mariners 25-19, 25-16 in the Milpitas Spikefest tournament, which took place Oct. 31. Although it’s been less than a month since that loss, Bryan said Sacred Hearth Cathedral will be facing a different Aptos team than it did that day. She said the Mariners had just come off an emotional win over Valley Christian, which will play Saratoga in the other semifinal, and were “a bit tired mentally.”

“They might underestimate us if they think that’s what we are,” she said. “That team they played at the Spikefest wasn’t the true Aptos team.”

Bryan said Sacred Heart Cathedral is taller than Aptos, has five solid hitters and has a good setter. She added, however, that she believes that the Mariners have better ball control.

She said it’s a jump in competition when Aptos, which went undefeated in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s regular season and tournament, jumps from league play to taking on tougher private schools. She said one of the keys to the match will be for the Mariners to establish their middle attack, so Sacred Heart Cathedral can’t just focus its blockers on the outside hitters.

Bryan said motivation to win is an important factor, noting that she’s coached teams before when players have been ready for the season to end. That’s not the case this year, she said, noting that her players have outstanding chemistry and are continuing to improve.

“We’re really excited about tomorrow,” Bryan said. “We know it’s going to be a battle. They are a very, very good team, but so are we.”

•••

Mount Madonna

While Aptos is going against a familiar foe, Mount Madonna coach Gabby Houston-Neville said she knows virtually nothing about Crystal Springs.

“That’s a first,” she said, “because usually we have at least a little bit of information. Looking at their roster, they are definitely a taller team than us. We have to be ready to cover their hitters and (be ready for) a potentially big-hitting team.”

The Hawks finished second to Aptos in both the SCCAL regular season and tournament. Their leaders are setter Erin Mitchell and defensive stalwart Soma Sharan, the two players remaining from the champion 2007 squad.

“They are our team captains and our leaders and they really set the tone for pushing the less experienced players to kind of the place they need to be,” Houston-Neville said. “They’ve been there, they’ve been through it. I think it’s really good for the younger players to have them there, letting them know we can do this.”

While Aptos faces a step up from league play at CCS, SCCAL competition is good preparation for the Division V tournament, said Houston-Neville, noting that few other Division V teams play in “A”-rated leagues.

“We’re confident,” she said. “We’ve been getting better all year. The girls get more confident every match they play. So we feel good entering this match, for sure.”

Houston-Neville added that the Hawks are focused on the semifinal match, and not what’s potentially beyond it, but added that it’s nice two years after breaking through with the program’s first CCS and state titles, to have another chance at a section crown.

“We’re super excited,” she said. “We’re proud that, coming from such a small school, that within two years we’re trying to make another run. We definitely have high hopes.”

•••

St. Francis

The Sharks have had a lot of change this year, having to replace Brown and other key players, and with Sue Grogan taking over as head coach.

They settled for fifth place in the SCCAL standings, but made the semifinals of the league tournament, and were able to win a set against the heavily favored Mariners before bowing out. Now, St. Francis is in the CCS semifinals for the fourth straight year.

“I feel as though (my players) have peaked at the right time,” Grogan said.

Grogan said even though the Sharks returned eight seniors this year, there wasn’t much pressure to succeed due to a feeling that they had lost most of their top weapons from last year. This year’s players have learned from last year and “really held their own” and become better players, she said.

Now, she said, most of the challenge is mental, especially because St. Francis is playing Castilleja, which beat the Sharks in the NorCal final last year after losing to them in the CCS final. Castilleja also beat St. Francis in the 2006 CCS final and in the 2007 semifinals.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an easy game, but Castilleja does have a very young team,” Grogan said. “They have two seniors and four juniors.”

She said that could make a difference when things get tough mentally, but noted that the Sharks have also had mental struggles at times.

“Hopefully I can work with the girls so they can play the game the best they can rather than worry about past history,” Grogan said.

The Division V final could come down to a match between St. Francis and Mount Madonna. The teams met twice this season, with Mount Madonna winning the first match in three sets, then needing five sets to win the second.

“We don’t forget the fact that once we beat Castilleja we’re not done, because we need to beat Mount Madonna after that,” Grogan said. “We gave Mount Madonna a run for their money last time, and hopefully next time we can make it have a different ending.”



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