Menlo, Notre Dame-Belmont volleyball on collision course

It’s an intriguing opening chapter for a 2023 WBAL race, after last year’s standings saw SHP run the table with a perfect 10-0 league record. From there, second-place (tie) Menlo and Mercy, and fourth-place NDB, all finished within one game of each other. That dynamic now stands to see even more of a bottleneck this season.

“I think it’s wide open,” Menlo head coach Tony Holland said. “Mercy is a good team. ... Last night just happened to be our night, but I think we’re going to see a different team when we go up there to Serra to see them. ... I think it’s up for grabs, and I think it’s going to come down to whoever plays the most consistent volleyball is going to win the league, and hopefully that will be us.”

Notre Dame-Belmont will insist on having something to say about that. The Tigers (1-0 WBAL, 10-4 overall) served up 14 aces in their 25-16, 18-25, 25-22, 25-17 win over SHP, with Adrianna Agresti and Julia Breckenridge totaling five apiece. Agresti added 25 digs, while junior outside hitter Gia Rivera recorded a double-double with 16 kills and 16 digs.

“I would say it was a huge upset,” NDB head coach Jen Agresti said via text. “The girls were beyond excited.”

The week’s best WBAL showdown may be yet to come.

With Menlo and NDB both playing in the Harbor Tournament in Santa Cruz this weekend, the two perennial WBAL contenders may be on a collision course for Saturday’s tourney finals. Both teams went 2-0 in Friday’s pool play, and open semifinal play Saturday. Menlo will take on the winner of the Harbor-Fresno Christian elimination qualifier, while NDB will face the winner between Soquel and Folsom.

The NDB girls moved the party to Santa Cruz for Friday’s opening round of the Harbor Tourney. A 25-9, 25-18, 25-10 sweep of Hollister was a quick respite for a showdown with Santa Cruz, a team that entered the tournament with a 12-2 record. NDB took the Cardinals to five sets and a little bit more, going to extra points in Game 5 for a 25-21, 24-26, 25-10, 8-25, 16-14 victory.

“My voice is gone,” Jen Agresti said, hence the need for responding via text message.

Menlo wrote a similar story, opening Friday with a 25-6, 25-19, 25-7 win over Morro Bay, then battling through five sets with Branham-San Jose for a 25-14, 15-25, 25-19, 27-29, 15-6 win. It was the Lady Knights’ first five-setter since their season opener, Aug. 24, against Aragon.

The Knights are tournament tested this season. Harbor marks their fourth tourney, after taking fifth at Spikefest, second at their host Chris Chandler Invitational, and 10th in the Dave Mohs Tournament in Huntington Beach. Menlo has one more tourney on the schedule this season at the Aragon Tournament in October.

“It is a lot,” Holland said. “And it’s kind of by — I don’t want to say by design — it’s a little bit by necessity.”

The necessity was born from an unbalanced WBAL Foothill Division schedule. Typically, there are six teams in each the WBAL Foothill and Skyline divisions, but this year Castilleja — originally slated to play in the Foothill, dropped to the Skyline, leaving the number of teams in the two divisions at five and seven, respectively.

The mini realignment left teams in the WBAL Foothill less games on their overall schedules. To compensate, Menlo loaded up its tournament schedule.

“Everyone handles it differently,” Holland said. “I handled it by trying to find more matches.”

Menlo (1-0, 13-8), with Thursday’s win, has now defeated Mercy 18 consecutive times going back to 2011. It was in the second turn through WBAL Foothill play last year that Mercy came the closest to ending the streak, taking Menlo to five sets before the Knights finished it out for a 10-25, 25-19, 27-25, 23-25, 15-8 victory. In that match, however, Menlo was without its top player, outside hitter Cleo Hardin, who missed the second half of the year due to injury.

Hardin was a key cog in the Menlo machine Thursday, totaling a match-high 11 kills to go with 12 digs and three aces.

“It’s amazing,” Holland said of Hardin’s return to the court. “She’s got great energy. ... Her and Lily Kautai, our setter, are the only players that played on our last [WBAL championship team in 2021] ... so having them back, and more importantly showing our younger players the way, is huge.”

Senior middle Bella Chen added nine kills and three blocks against Mercy, while sophomore Lily Hinshaw continues to impress off the right side. Hinshaw totaled eight kills, and has shown the Knights are loading up to stay competitive next season in the wake of Hardin’s graduation.

“We have sophomores who are new to varsity,” Holland said. “Not only do we need them for this year, but also for next year when we don’t have Cleo.”