Nueva volleyball stakes claim to share of PSAL title

In the context of the race for the PSAL North title, however, it’s the same old song. After the two teams shared the league championship last season, Nueva has forced its way into a first-place tie with Summit Shasta one week remaining in the season. Since falling to Summit Shasta (7-1, 20-3) in five sets Sept. 24, Nueva has now won five straight league matches.

“I think we’ve grown a lot over the past month,” Nueva head coach Janelle Burnett said “Just playing better competition, that’s the best way to get better. Just seeing a higher level of volleyball can kind of help get everybody onboard as to where we want to go.”

The big tuneup for the Nueva Mavericks came the previous weekend when the team posted a 2-2 record at the Stockton Classic, including wins over Monte Vista-Danville and St. Ignatius-SF.

So, stepping onto their home court last Thursday with their league-championship fate in their own hands, the Mavericks took the message to heart in their traditional pregame meeting, as delivered from team captains Willow Taylor Chiang Yang and Paige Mountanos.

“I think our game captains and our role players, they just decided to make a huge effort toward how we want to finish the end of the season,” Burnett said.

The previous time Nueva and Summit Shasta met turned into a five-set brawl, including a 15-13 score in the final set, a set Nueva led as late as 9-8.

This time around, Yang and Mountanos balanced the attack to post nearly identical numbers. Mountanos, a junior outside hitter, delivered 13 kills with a .524 hitting percentage; Yang, also a junior outside hitter, totaled 12 kills and a .579 percentage.

As the two team captains heated up, sophomore setter Cate Lee set the tone from the service line. Lee ultimately shared the team-high of five aces with Yang, and perhaps more importantly went on an extended service run at the top of the match to get the Mavericks off to a 10-1 start in Game 1.

“I just think we shocked them a little bit over how much we’ve grown since we played them last,” Burnett said. “And the girls just played really well.”

Nueva totaled 10 match blocks, led by Mountanos with six total blocks and senior middle Laura Schneider with four. Schneider also totaled four service aces.

One of just two seniors on the Nueva roster, Schneider has paired with a freshman rotation mate in middle Isabelle Yalif. Entering into the season, Yalif wasn’t expected to be a primary regular, but that changed when junior middle Caroline Stevens was lost for the year due to non-sports related surgery.

The Mavericks are accustomed to the youth movement though. Last year, they had no seniors on roster. And going forward, the chemistry between Lee, a sophomore, and the junior tandem of Mountanos and Yang — both of whom are third-year varsity juniors — figures into a promising outlook for 2020 as well.

“Most of these girls, they’re ready,” said Burnett, who is also in her third year with the varsity squad. Previous to taking over the program in 2017, she coached at Nueva Middle School for two years, giving her a rare long-term kinship with her core upperclassmen. “They just know how working well together, how much that matters.”

Gaining a share of first place in the PSAL North was a point of pride for the Mavericks. They were still in line for their third Central Coast Section Division V playoff berth in four years; the top two finishers in the league standings are guaranteed a postseason bid.

“There’s a little pride,” Burnett said, “and it gives us a little extra juice.”