CCS twice as nice for Aragon volleyball

“Ecstatic joy, jumping up and down,” Aragon head coach Annette Gennaro said. “By the fourth set, when the score was where it was, they felt it. But it doesn’t happen very often.”

While No. 2-seed Aragon (26-10) repeated as Division II champs, this is the first championship for Gennaro, who is in her second turn as the team’s head coach. She coached Aragon’s freshman team last season when Aragon, led by coach Kelsey Stiles, won the program’s first-ever CCS crown.

Gennaro said this one was a much different perspective.

“It was a different perspective,” Gennaro said. “I was really proud of the girls and how they battled through a lot of different challenges this year. We’ve had just a bunch of injuries all season long. … The girls just stepped up and did what they had to do to put the best team on the floor.”

The Dons had to contend with two key injuries down the stretch. Sophomore Suliana Tongamoa was lost to a knee injury during warm-ups for the final regular-season match of the season at Hillsdale. Senior middle Lolo Folau missed Aragon’s CCS opener last Tuesday against Leland due to an ankle injury, then returned as an opposite hitter for the final two matches.

Then there was the yearlong reinvention of the Aragon offense. The Dons converted to a 6-2 offense this year, after three previous seasons utilizing a single setter, Gennaro’s daughter Della. In the wake of Della’s graduation, sophomore Gabi Oaks and freshman Anau Tongamoa had to get up to speed in a hurry to keep Aragon competitive.

“We really worked with our setters on really just keeping it simple,” Gennaro said, “and after that, moving on to more complex stuff. And they’ve taken to it. They’ve done a fabulous job with it. They have a lot of experience behind them on the back row and they definitely have a lot of experience on the front line. So, they’ve been surrounded by a lot of experience, which has helped them out.”

Seniors Abby Thaw at libero, and Dylan Scherer at defensive specialist were nails in the back row all year. But it was the senior presence of middle hitter Maddie Campbell up front that was the glue through the postseason, Gennaro said.

“In all that, Maddie Campbell really stepped up … playing wherever she needs to play and doing whatever she needs to do,” Gennaro said.

In the championship match, though, the Dons got a surge of energy in Game 2 when senior outside hitter Lydia Manu got going. Manu totaled a team-high 16 kills. More importantly, Manu — another princess of Aragon athletics as the daughter of girls’ basketball coach Sam Manu — has a way of really rallying the troops with her contagious emotion and energy on the court.

Junior opposite Sabine Milton added 14 kills, and junior middle Ella Sears had 11 for the Dons.

“When we’re clicking, we’re really good,” Gennaro said.

This marks the fourth straight athletics season an Aragon girls’ team has won a CCS championship. Aragon did something unprecedented for a county public school in 2018-19 in winning CCS titles in volleyball, girls’ basketball and softball.

Will the Lady Dons run the table through fall, winter and spring again this year?

“We can only hope that,” Gennaro said. “But it’s been really nice to see our sports, especially on the female side, take that huge leap that they did last year.”

Aragon now advances to the CIF State Championships. Drawing the No. 2 seed in Division II, the Dons open at home Tuesday, hosting Rocklin at 6 p.m.