Menlo-Atherton falls in five sets in CCS Division I volleyball finals

M-A (20-15) kept pace with the Mt. Hamilton League champs in Game 4, leading late 17-16, only to be overcome by Branham’s 5-1 run. But Game 5 was an utter catastrophe, with M-A being slapped with two consecutive rotation errors as the Bruins jumped out to a 5-0 advantage.

“My setter … she’s never ever been called for that,” M-A head coach Bryant Tran said. “I guess she was not standing where she was supposed to be. I think it was a gritty, really technical call. … The rules are the rules but in the fifth set, she wasn’t that far over. It’s the fifth set, she’s been standing like that all five sets.”

The visibly upset Bears, totaling just three team kills in the closing set, would never recover.

“I think they were already on high emotions for it being a championship match,” Tran said. “Then coming into to the fifth set and getting called with something that’s so miniscule … of course I think she felt something about it.”

M-A senior Anna Ryan — M-A’s only current college commit set to play at Claremont McKenna College — scored a team-high 17 kills and three blocks. The hybrid opposite hitter/setter was versatile in her attacks to open Game 1, as the Bears jumped out to an 8-4 lead. The Bruins caught up at 14-14 and battled to a 20-all tie with offense from Ava Medina, Andra Enache and Giselle Paedon. But M-A took the lead on a coffin corner kill by Ryan to spark a 5-0 run to end it.

Then Schulman picked up the run for M-A from the service line to start Game 2. The senior totaled six match aces, including three amid the 9-0 run to open the second set, with her dive bomb-style lasers biting just inside the backline time and again to frustrate the Branham serve receive.

Then two pivotal things happened. First, Schulman’s streak ended when she was called for a service fault on a bad read by the corner judge; the ball was clearly inside the backline but was called long.

“From where I was standing, the first two (serves) that Branham let go … looked like they were more out,” Tran said. “But that one, it was definitely in.”

The other factor was Branham senior Alexia Enache started waking up, and so too did the Bruins.

Alexia Enache rallied for three straight points — a definitive block followed by two kills on blasts off the left side — to swing Branham ahead 13-12. The Bruins led as late as 16-15, but another service run by Schulman gave the advantage back to M-A. Ryan’s late exploits provided some breathing room, including a key block of Andra Enache, followed by a cross shot off the right side to make it 22-19. Yet it took a quick set through the middle by M-A sophomore Sienna Morales to win Game 2 in extra-points.

As it turned out, however, Alexia Enache was just getting warmed up. The senior enjoyed her best stanza in Game 3, scoring eight kills, including a fast five to put the Bruins up 6-3. She’d add eight more kills through games 4 and 5 and finished with a match-high 21 kills.

“She got going I kind of felt like she figured out where she could hit,” Tran said. “Their setter is really good … so she just put it tight on top of the net and let her rip on top of it.”

In Game 4, the Bears built a comfortable 16-12 lead, as Ryan contained an attack by the 6-foot sophomore Paedon with a block off the left side. But Alexia Enache tooled the M-A block to force a side-out, sparking a 4-0 run for Branham to tie it 16-all. The set remained deadlocked until 21-21 when the Bruins failed to return a serve by senior libero Clara Cronin. But another Branham side-out was followed by an Andra Enache service ace — one of a team-high five aces for the junior — and the Bruins would never again trail in the match.

Defending Branham’s arsenal of hitters was a tough matchup for the Bears, considering they were missing two of their best defenders. M-A entered the postseason handicapped by the loss of senior middle Marta Mordec, who suffered a knee injury midway through the regular season. Then in the CCS semifinals against Carlmont, junior middle Caroline Cioffi exited with an injury. Cioffi did not play Saturday.

Branham’s Andra Enache finished with 16 kills and Paedon with 14 kills, including a rocket for championship point.

Senior outside hitter Christina Kerr totaled 11 kills, and sophomore opposite Daniela Eline had 10 for the Bears.

Tran said there’s something about this time of year at M-A, where the combination of homecoming and the postseason brings out the best in his team. This year marks the first time the Bears have appeared in the CCS finals in consecutive seasons since the program won back-to-back Division I titles in 2014 and ’15.

“They just seem to lock in, and they did it again,” Tran said. “I’m just super proud of my team and the way they performed, and for just being together and understanding the moment.”