Capuchino volleyball on the verge of undefeated Ocean title

Cap clinched at least a share of the league championship last Thursday with a sweep at Jefferson. The only thing left to determine is whether it will be an outright championship or a shared one. This will be settled in Tuesday’s regular-season finale when the Mustangs host second-place San Mateo, with the Bearcats one game behind them in the standings.

“It is important” Lau said. “Of course, our goal is to stay undefeated. Also, San Mateo is a strong team, and we want to keep our momentum as we go into CCS, so we have our confidence when we go in there.”

A former serving specialist during his playing days at UC Santa Cruz, Lau has preached the virtues of serving to his Mustangs team. And they’ve responded. The undersized roster — at 5-8, junior middle hitter Cadence Lopez is the team’s tallest player — has had to rely on keep opponents out of system.

Led by 5-3 senior Ellie Wang, the Mustangs have been menacing opponents’ serve receive, especially in PAL Ocean Division play. Through its undefeated 13-0 league run, Cap has dropped just two sets, the last one on Sept. 22 against El Camino. Since then, the Mustangs have won 22 straight sets in league play.

“This team, we don’t have height,” Lau said. “We really don’t. If the coach is the tallest player on the team ... that’s a problem. The team recognizes that, and they work hard on being a good unit to help each other out to compensate for lack of height. … They give extra effort everywhere to compensate for that.”

Lau has helped cultivate a depth of service weapons in senior middle Sina Lehauli, and the sister act of senior defensive specialist Gabrielle Cancianti and sophomore opposite hitter Sophia Cancianti.

Wang, Cap’s libero, has been the most consistently lethal arm from the service line. The senior mixes it up, from her signature floater, to short serving, and a coffin corner — oftentimes with the panache of a jump serve — Wang has set the tone for Cap’s breakout performance this season.

“She is our best server,” Lau said. “The first thing is she’s very, very consistent. She seldom makes mistakes. And the other thing is she has different types of serves … and she is very accurate in serving between players. She makes players move. When they move, they make mistakes.”

San Mateo is no pushover, though. The Bearcats have dropped just one match in PAL Ocean play this season, Sept. 29 to Cap. And while the Mustangs swept that all-important showdown, it was much closer than straight sets might suggest. Cap won it 25-23, 30-28, 25-19.

“It was a great battle,” Lau said. “We barely won against them. We respect them a lot. The game can go either way on each of the sets. And we were lucky to pull through.”

A win Tuesday would all but guarantee the Mustangs a home game in the Central Coast Section playoffs. There are no available records via CCS of Cap having ever hosted a CCS playoff match.

While the CCS has been holding volleyball playoffs since 1975, the records as to host venues only goes back to 1996. Cap hasn’t hosted a volleyball playoff match at least since then. The program’s last CCS playoff victory was in 1991 in the opening round against Mercy-San Francisco.

Lau only offered an educated guess as to whether or not Cap has ever hosted a CCS volleyball match.

“As far as I know — never,” Lau said.